Neutral(?) - The Aftermath
by Stupidusernamepolicy
Summary: Almost a decade after Frisk's adventure, her child is forced to go through the same thing. What will she choose? Will she succumb to the family Demon her mother almost did too? The rating may go up (T for safety) For full size of the cover pic (made by me) go here: /art/Understory-The-Aftermath-cover-580375481
1. Down The Rabbit Hole

**A/N: Hello everyone! So, I recently played a game recently, Undertale, and I absolutely loved it. So, I started drawing Fanart of it (Freely visit my DeviantART, I'm stupidusernamepolicy. Yaaaay, self advertising!), and this morning I got the idea for this.**

 **Also, I have to warn you, I'm thinking about halting my fanfiction A New Life. It's just very poorly written, I don't see it going anywhere and I don't have the nerves to fix all of that, it's really long… Sorry.**

 **So yeah, this will be like an aftermath of the neutral ending in which you kill everyone but Toriel and Undyne, and it's going to be told in protagonist's point of view. It's going to be something new for me, so forgive me for any mistakes I do. Also, I know that Toby Fox said Frisk is any gender player says, that sorta makes them "agendered" or "Nonbinary", but in this Frisk's a female**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 1:**_

 _ **Down The**_

 _ **Rabbit Hole**_

... I guess... I should tell you how all of this happened... Shouldn't I?

I live in a small town of XXYY. It's a really nice place, under a mountain and everything, surrounded by forest. I live there with my mom, dad used to too but he's not really around enough to tell that he really lives there. It's a peaceful place, even though there are some minor crimes and disappearances from time to time, but it's so rare people barely notice.

My mom? She's a great person! She cooks for me, always wears nice clothes, and she's really kind. She has that nice little heart locket she always wears.. She never talks about how she got it, but that's okay. Though, something's been off with her last few days.

She's been acting strange lately.

It seemed like she's upset. I tried to talk to her over the time and she just over time kept said something about magic, and skeletons, and Mt. Ebott, and something like "level of violence", and that it's been over a decade since it all happened.. I probably looked pretty dumbfound because when she looked down to me she smiled and said that she shouldn't worry me with all that complicated stuff. She must have noticed that all she said got me concerned, because she mentioned that we're going to visit dad tomorrow. Like they say, curiosity killed the cat

Today, mom's phone rang. She wasn't around so I went to pick it up and say whoever was calling to try and to call later, but they hung up before I could even pick up.

I wanted to check out who called, who knows, maybe it was dad. But the funny old phone my mom's was, it sent me to voicemail library instead. Mom didn't get a lot of voicemails nowadays, so a strange old one caught my eye immediately. Instead from family and friends, this one was just plain numbers, no name. And with that it was over a decade old! I knew I shouldn't sniff around mom's stuff, but I was really curious, so I checked if she was anywhere near and played it.

It was really weird. A strange voice just spoke about a human, told something that seemed like a fairy tale. It told something about a monster queen that wanted to restore peace in the underground, but was overthrown by a hero and exiled back to the ruins that were probably the queen's previous home. Huh. sounded like one of Mom's stories.

Then the story got really strange. The voice, I think it was a man, put himself into the story, saying he joined the queen in her home to keep her company and ended the call with something that sounded even scary. He said he had no heart to tell her about what mom had done, how she killed someone. His brother..?

After he hung up, I heard mom coming, so I turned the phone back to the missed calls menu and put it back to its place. Mom sometimes told me stories about people like that… A heroine that goes by name Undyne, a kind queen named Toriel, a magical robot made by a genius scientist named Mettaton, the list just went on and on. My mom was and still is a person that's very fond of telling fairy tales.

* * *

That night I couldn't get to sleep. I was sitting on my bed, looking in the distance at the naked mountain looming in the distance. It was kinda sad, it looked like nothing ever lived there. I tried to remember the name of the mountain… I was sure it started with an "E"… Evon? Ebil?

Oh yeah, it was Ebott. .. Didn't mom mention something about it earlier? Why would a mountain make her sad? Is she sad about our neighbor's son that wandered off there a year ago? Nah, that's nuts, we barely knew them.

But I started to get curious. I was wondering what kind of connection mom had with that mountain because to go up there was forbidden, like it was some unspoken rule.

After a while the curiosity got the best of me. I got up, changed from my pajamas into my favorite climbing clothes; a soft black turtleneck shirt, a long purple hoodie, brown pants and boots, and a long, old red scarf with dust long entangled with the threads (I sometimes wonder why mom never washes it out..). I took my backpack, put a few things inside, like a bag of chips I was hiding in the closet and pocketknife my dad once gave me when we went camping and went out through the window. It's only going to be a few hours and I'll be back at the house, safe and sound, right?

Hmmm... Just in case, I made a decoy, in case I'm late, so that mom doesn't worry if she gets up early.

Even though it took me a while, climbing the mountain wasn't that hard.

Despite how it looked from a distance, the top was really nice, though the wind was blowing pretty harshly. The sky was clear, it was almost like no pollution ever got there; I could see the sky was just bursting with stars.

Now, don't get me wrong, I knew about the legend; "Those who climb up the mountain Ebott leave not to return" and stuff. But that's just poppycock, right? Yeah, many people have vanished, but that didn't happen in almost a year now. I continued walking until I saw a bead of golden flowers, near a huge pit like a sinkhole. A shiver went down my back, and the worst is I didn't even know from what; the sudden rise of cold wind, the bottomless pit or just strange familiarity of the golden flowers. For some reason, even the extremely soft scarf got a bit itchy

My gut was telling me it was time to leave. Though, even if the flowers awoke a strange feeling in my gut, I wanted to get at least a few for dad, so I went closer.

Though, I stepped over my shoelace or tripped over a root or something, I can't really remember, because the second after I took that step I was falling down the huge hole.

* * *

I woke up probably hours later, lying on a thick bed of yellow flowers. My whole body was aching, but nothing seemed broken so I got up and looked around. It seemed like ruins of some sort, and it was very dark. I looked up and saw, far above, the night sky. Then I remembered: I fell. I started panicking, thinking how mom would be worried about me and how the heck would I get back up

Then, I saw a Flower.. moving? It was rising out the grass and looking at me with a smile.

"Howdy!" it said. "I'm Flowey! Flowey the flower!"

I had to be dead or I hit my head when I fell and was seeing things.

It gave me a weird look before starting to ramble about something called "LOVE" and "EXP", then it started shooting out some strange things that looked like seeds that he called "friendliness pellets".

Something down in my gut was telling me that those things were nothing good, so I made my way around them. The flower- err, Flowey, seemed like he's getting annoyed, before one of those things hit me; it hurt like the pellet stabbed me. I fell down and his expression got really scary, before he surrounded me with a bunch of those things and said something like "Kill or be killed".

Though, when they touched me, nothing happened. Even more so, the pain from the other hit completely disappeared!

Flowey looked confused before a flame literally blasted him off, away from me. A woman, no, a goat..? Something in between, approached me, and behind her was a short skeleton with a grin stretched over his face.

Okay, then I knew I was going completely insane. Those two looked like… Like uh…

"Hello" she said, cutting off my thoughts "My name's Toriel. I'm the caretaker of the ruins. And this is Sans" she continued, gesturing to the smaller skeleton.

Their expressions changed a lot after they saw me. Both like they saw a ghost, and me standing there and staring at them like I just saw the eighth world wonder was the cherry on the top I'd bet.

"… My child?" was all Toriel made out, expression changing to a happier one, while skeleton looked like he was displeased… No, even disgusted that he saw me.

I only managed to push through some confused sounds before I got a bear hug from her

"Oh, my child, I was so worried, so much time has passed since… Since.."

At that point there weren't any words to express just how confused I was.

"Now then!" she continued, letting go of me and taking my hand "Please, let's go home. I'm making your favorite!"

We walked through the ruins for what seemed like hours. She guided me through puzzles, and I was too intimidated by the skeleton's judging glare to say anything. After a while we got to a nice, cozy house. The goat lady showed me my room and with less explanation than I'd expect put me to bed. Even though I recently had a snooze, I felt so tired and worn out by the surprises that I fell asleep like a rock.


	2. Old Past Haunts The Present

**A/N: Wow, this story has a favorite,** _ **two**_ **followers, a review and** _ **40 views**_ **already?! Man, you guys are killing me! It usually took me weeks if not months to reach this sorta stats! And it's been like, what, 5 hours since I published this? Wowie! (as you can tell, I'm not really used to my stories being this popular XD)**

 **So, just for you guys, I improved the first chapter a bit.**

 **Now, counting the first chapter was… Well, short and the first, I guess a review isn't needed, is it?**

 **So, anyways, we venture on into the Underground with our unfortunate human.**

 **Oh, I'm gonna have so much fun torturing this one…**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 2:**_

 _ **Old Past Haunts**_

 _ **The Present**_

Oh? You're still listening?

…

Well, I guess I could go on, I started rambling this strange story already, didn't I?

Anyways, I woke up hours later to a sweet smell. Something like… Mom's butterscotch pie.

I rubbed the sleep off my eyes and sat up; a big slice of cinnamon butterscotch pie was sitting on a plate not far from the bed. I took it, it really seemed inviting to eat, but I really didn't want to eat it just yet, so I put it away for later. Who knows.

I crept out the bedroom, only to find the skeleton from earlier, staring at me with the same expression as earlier. I swear I could see his left eye faintly glow. Toriel interrupted the stare-off, saying she made dinner.

We all went to kitchen. The kind woman rambled on and on.. It was kind of nice, and the dinner tasted great as well. Though, the skeleton, Sans, was still giving me that weird, judgmental look all the time; Toriel didn't seem to notice it though.

After a while, she read me stories as Sans went down to basement. Toriel said it's off limits for me "now more than ever". Though, the curiosity that got me into this mess sparkled up again, this time focusing on the short skeleton.

I excused myself to go to the bathroom and tip toed after Sans.

After a long walk, I came across him again, standing in front of huge doors.

"… Why?"

He said, turning around. I recognized that voice

"Why'd you come back?"

I don't know if it was possible, but I think I saw rings under his now completely empty eye sockets.

"And wearing his scarf too.."

I tried to tell him that I didn't know what was going on, what he was talking about, but my words escaped me upon hearing that cold, sad tone

"The scarf I made for my brother… Why? Just tell me why, kiddo?"

Only then, I muttered out a few words. I'm not even sure what they were anymore, probably something like "I don't know"

The bony man let out a chuckle, bowing his head again as his pale face stretched into a grin

"You really are a freak, kid.. Showing up here again, wearing his scarf… You really do like to play with fire…"

Only then, it all started making sense to me. I quote my unsure words:

"Y…you were the one who phoned my mom, weren't you? You were the one that she got upset over, weren't you?"

Sans looked at me like I was insane, then again smiled

"C'mon kid, even a funny guy like me doesn't get the punchline there…"

"There is no punchline!" I said, it was obvious he wasn't taking me seriously, "I know my mother well, she wouldn't harm an ant!"

Deep down, I had a feeling that was a lie; just because she was good to me doesn't mean she couldn't be a bad person. Adults put those charades around children altogether a bit too often. And Sans just stared at me again, expression growing angrier but also with some doubt mixing in. Who knows what would've happened if a distant voice wasn't heard

"My child!" Toriel hurried over to us, "I warned you about this already! Come on, let's go back upstairs, I'm locking the basement doors from now on.." she said as she took me by hand and practically dragged me upstairs. Sans was waiting for us upstairs in the hallway to the bedrooms, though I could swear I saw him downstairs, just looking at us a minute ago

* * *

Hours passed, I had to go to sleep again. I managed to pull a few hours of sleep before waking up again.

"hey." a voice said just before I opened my eyelids. I shot up in the bed and looked at the skeleton sitting on the desk.

"What are you doing here?" I asked sleepily, rubbing my eyes, "It's weird to watch people while they're sleeping.."

"that attitude won't get you anywhere with me" the skeleton sighed. After a longer pause though, he realized I won't reply, so he kept the conversation going himself;

"that before kiddo, you weren't joking?"

"Of course I wasn't.. You probably mistook me for my mom, I look a lot like her.." I replied, my gaze lowering to the sheets, "… Say, what you said earlier, about my mom I mean… If she really did kill, was it out of self defense?"

"well, kiddo, i couldn't say your mom wasn't thrown into a lotsa crazy situations, she had to defend herself.. though, one time, she had a choice and she blew it." he said, trailing his hands over the red scarf. I hadn't even noticed it was in his lap until then "this belonged to my brother.. he wasn't dangerous, even if he tried to be. your mom failed to recognize that and.."

I had went silent. Would she really kill an innocent person?

".. now, y'see, she killed a few other people, the king also bit the dust, literally… so, in his place, old friend of my brother papyrus, Undyne, came in his place and sworn to kill every human that goes down here. then, she's going to use their souls to break the barrier that's keeping us trapped here and wage a war on humanity.. your mother escaped a while ago with the power of king's soul and her own, and the souls went missing. i think she wouldn't really be that selfish to do that, but that little flower you encountered may be."

I carefully listened to his every word. I recalled more and more people my mother used in her fairy tales; Undyne, the undying heroine, Mettaton, the glittery magic robot, Alphys, the ingenious scientist, Muffet, the goodwill bake sale spider, Asgore, the kind king who followed down a wrong path, I even recalled the one she didn't talk about in a while, Flowey the Flower, she always almost jokingly added on "Never have any business with talking flowers!". Now I see what she meant by that.

"so, in conclusion kid, i'll repeat what i said to your mother back then… buddy, if it wasn't for the promise i made to this kind woman, you'd be dead where you stand." his voice growing extremely cold on the last few words. He then went on to explain that "LOVE" actually meant "Level of violence" my mom mentioned and "EXP" meaning "execution points".

After he finished explaining the acronyms and what had happened, I couldn't help but see that kind woman that raised me in a different light.

Oh, that was right! My mother!

"Sans, I have to get back up! My mother is definitely worried sick about me!"

"little buddy.." Sans chuckled, closing his eyes "only way out is going through the barrier, and barrier is heavily guarded by royal guards, monsters and Undyne… leaving and facing her is equal to suicide…"

"… though" He opened his left eye "if you really wish to leave, i'll give ya a little tip… keep going east, you should eventually get to the castle. and i've gotta warn ya, a single weak human soul isn't enough to break the barrier. you'd have to take Undyne's soul to get through... Though, before you say anything, i must ask you to be merciful towards the monsters. your sins will catch up with you. and even if you leave with her soul - which i doubt will happen - by leaving you'd be depriving the underground from hope once again, just like your mother did a decade ago. are you really ready to do that?"

I couldn't let out a voice. Was I really more important than all people that lived here? Normally, I'd say no, but when I imagine my mom's sad face, I couldn't bring myself to do that. The skeleton seemed to be reading my thoughts, or rather my expression

"well… i'll leave you to think this through."

He then threw a key to my lap and got up. I picked up the little thing and just as he was about to leave…

"S….Sans..?"

"yeah?" he turned his head to meet my gaze

"… Thank you.."

"… Just don't disappoint me like your Mommy did."

he then walked out, leaving me alone with my thoughts once again. I looked down to the key in silence before clutching it so hard that my hand hurt. I got dressed again, left a note for Toriel, took my backpack and walked outside. I felt… Determined. Determined to free those poor monsters. Determined to make peace. Determined to see my mother again!

* * *

I made my way down the basement, unlocked the doors leading to the outside and walked through the small grass field towards the next passage. Suddenly, I saw something moving in the grass. I almost groaned

Not again

"Clever. Veeeery clever." Flowey said with a sarcastic expression, "That comedian helped you, eh? You think you can drag out a happy ending for everyone, eh? Well guess what, that bonehead is wrong. In this world it's kill or be killed. Even our dear _empress_ realizes that, and you're not going to deny it forever. And when you do, _they_ will have their return…"

The golden flower then popped back into the ground. I tried not to pay much mind to his rambling so I pressed forward. After I exited the Ruins a sudden cold wrapped itself around me;

It was snowing…

In a cave…?

I shook my head, things stopped making sense the moment I fell down here. I just rubbed my hands together to warm them up and kept walking forward. It took me a long, long time to reach the first house. Man, what things I saw along the way! Old, rusted puzzles, monsters of all kinds (From which I ran away of course, I was sure to keep my promise to Sans). Now then, back to the story.

A kerosene lamp illuminated a snow covered wooden sign

"Welcome to Snowdin Town" I read out loud. Soon, I saw a shop, and an inn. My heart immoderately felt lighter. Finally, a place where I could stay and warm up!

Though, when I walked in and went to check in (Carefully of course, though the receptionist didn't seem to notice anything off about me), I realized I had no money to pay the stay with. Moped, I walked out the inn and continued walking; most of the houses had their lights turned off, residents probably sleeping. Only one place was open and shining;

The letters on the building read "Grillby's"

I walked inside and was greeted by a wave of heat and a nice smell of fried food. My face had probably lighted up; I've been so hungry, cold and tired; some "good" food would probably help me!

Then I remembered again, I had no money.

Just as I was about to leave, the doors opened behind me and the few people in the bar turned to the doors and said friendly, almost completely ignoring me;

"Sans!"

"Sansyyy!"

"What's up, you bag of bones?"

"nothing much." he replied, grinning as usual. Only then, he noticed me.

"oh hey kiddo. hey, you look cold"

"No kidding.." I replied, heading for the doors. My tone, sadder than I thought it was gonna be, apparently got to him, because not a second after he nonchalantly said:

"hey, waddaya say you join me?"

"… Sure." I turned back to him, already feeling my determination almost… Flowing back in, before following the skeleton to the bar. He maybe was short, but I was even shorter so I just sorta waddled behind him like some kind of duckling before sitting by him. He looked like he was about to ask what I'd like to eat when my stomach growling interrupted. I kind of felt embarrassed and needy.

"two burgers, grillby" Sans ordered as the flame man at the counter went to the back room. It almost felt like his heat was warming the whole bar.

"say kid, you made it past the forest, didya keep your promise?"

I nodded in response with the biggest confidence I could. Though, his look trailed over to my arms; I gained a few cuts and bruises in the process.

"glad to hear that."

".. How's Toriel?"

"a bit sad, but not all bad." he said. "i saw that you left her a note. nice of you that you didn't force me to do the explaining."

"Well, I had to repay you somehow.. I don't like staying in debts"

"true, true"

Grillby then walked through the kitchen doors, carrying two plates, each with a burger on it, put it on the bar then got out a bottle of ketchup from under the counter

"would ya like some ketchup, kid?"

"No thanks, I'm good."

He then shrugged "welp, more for me" and chugged the whole bottle down

I didn't pay it much mind. Heck, guy likes ketchup, who am I to argue? I was just hungry. I chomped the greasy sandwich down, Sans barely touching his. After I finished, Sans got up

"put that on my tab, Grillby" the flame man in bartender suit nodded in acknowledgement so Sans continued "take care, kiddo." and walked out before I could say anything.

* * *

Feeling full and satisfied, but most of all grateful towards the skeleton, I walked outside and resumed my journey through the town. Though, a little house at the end of the town caught my eye; it seemed abandoned. Two mailboxes, one empty and other filled with yellowed junk mail were so old that the names on them couldn't be read. The lock was rusted, so I easily got inside;

It looked kind of sad, everything was covered in a thick layer of dust. I felt a sour feeling down in my stomach and didn't dare to venture further in. I left the house and continued further into the cave, to east.

Soon, the cave vent on and became a little warmer, sound of rushing water becoming a bit louder. the ceiling was suddenly filled with glowing rocks like stars. It all seemed so… Peaceful. I kept walking, enjoying the scenery a bit too. Oh, also, the cave was littered with strange blue flowers. They whispered some things, like long passed conversations. It was a bit scary, but nice in a way too. The whole place just radiated some melancholic calmness.

I proceeded, it was too late to turn back now.

* * *

 **A/N: Aw, fanfiction won't support the Comic Sans font... Oh well, at least I tried.**

 **Wowie, two updates in one day! Well, I'm wrapping this up a bit earlier, I'm in a hurry. So, Good Night everyone!**


	3. The Calm Before The Storm

**A/N: Wheeee I like writing this story so much**

 **So yeah, the protagonist doesn't even see what kinda sh*t they rolled themselves into. Also, even though I use the "they" pronoun, I'm thinking of the protagonist as more of a female, but you're free to make them male in your head.**

 **Now, for once I'm glad I don't have to think of a name! If you could tell by my previous Fanfictions, I'm HORRIBLE at naming my characters.**

 **So Yeah, I'm planning that somewhere during this chapter the protagonist learns the benefits of their determination, such as loading, and maybe even the presence of a certain fallen human looming over them…?**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 3:**_

 _ **Calm Before**_

 _ **The Storm**_

Heh, you just can't get enough of this bizarre tale, can you?

Oh well, who am I to judge?

After I arrived to this calm place of the cave I already felt a bit more comfortable, though that didn't last very long; from nicely lit cave with glowing rocks and nice scenery it just descended into a dark, damp cave with water rushing everywhere, even through walls.

I passed a few rooms, nothing really worth of note; a rotten down wooden stand (with… snow on it..?), a few more or less friendly monsters, a waterfall with falling rocks. I haven't gotten far, I was already pretty tired of that place; if my trousers weren't tucked into my boots they'd be wet to ankles right now (luckily, my boots weren't letting any water come through), and right forward was a patch of tall grass. Just as I was about to turn back I heard metal clanging in distance.

I was already pretty beaten up from previous fights, and was weak because I refused to fight back. "Level of violence" still didn't sound very inviting to me. Anyhow, there was no way I'd survive another fight, so I quietly groaned and hid myself in the tall, wet grass. Voices and footsteps, each followed by sound of metal armor.

"Jeez… Are you really sure they went this way?"

"Of course I am! Err, well, citizens were pretty sure about seeing a weird little thing alike a human come through here, but.."

"Come on, be serious about your job for once."

"I agree with him, empress doesn't like slackers."

I didn't dare to let out a peep, I just waited there and prayed not to be seen. Eventually, the three voices- I think were members of the Royal Guard, moved through the grass a few feet away from me, still chatting about something that I don't think is worth mentioning - what they'll have for dinner and stuff.

After the footsteps went dim I resumed my journey ahead. I passed to the next room, solved a puzzle and proceeded into the next one.

Finally, a well lit one! … Well, not exactly, but it was nice nevertheless; the sparkling stones were back up at the ceiling and the room was filled with the whispering teal flowers; I think some of the monsters I interacted with before described them as "Echo Flowers". Apparently they repeat the last thing they've heard. I think I'll carry one up to mom when I get back. But for now I was interested in hearing what they said. After all, the sign on wall said "WHISHING ROOM".

* * *

It felt kind of like eavesdropping, but I listened to what the flowers said. Monsters seemed like very modest creatures from what I heard, but most of the wishes were really depressing.

 _"I wish to see the real stars one day with my grandpa!"_

 _"Wow! If only my sister was here to see this!"_

 _"I wish that my mom comes back soon.."_

 _"I wish that Asgore soon comes back."_

 _"If only we could leave this cave… That'd be enough.."_

Actually, most of the wishes were of that type; It again awoke the doubt I had back in the Ruins.

 _"… by leaving you'd be depriving the underground from hope once again, just like your mother did a decade ago. are you really ready to do that?"_

Sans' words echoed in my head. Was I really ready to do something so selfish?

Nevertheless, I convinced myself there was enough time to worry about that later, and pressed on. There was an old telescope in the room, but I really wasn't in the mood, so I just continued through the only pathway left; a hole in the north wall

It lead to a place somewhat like a harbor; old wooden bridge was built on the water; I don't know if the bottom really was really that far down, or if it was just too dark to see it. Either way, I decided, no matter how bad I smelled, I'm not trying the water.

I walked on, frequently checking out the walls; there seemed to be some strange, probably centuries old writing. I couldn't make out a lot from it, but it seemed like a tale of what happened in the war between Humans and Monsters. Some placed in text were so done in by the time that I couldn't make it all out, but I understood what was happening.

The last thing on the wall though, a drawing of a weird creature, sent chills down my spine. It was awfully unsettling. It almost seemed… Familiar? No, that's crazy, must've been one of those déjà vu you experience by something you've never seen or something that type. Anyways, moving on,

A small raft was floating in the water near it, tied to the bridge. I had no other way forward, so I just untied it, jumped onto it and let the water flow do the rest. I figured I should rest a bit, so I sat down and took out the bag of chips I've taken from home. By the time I arrived to the other side, I was completely rested and ready to continue!

I've carefully stepped back onto the so-so sturdy bridge and continued walking. That picture was still bothering me though.. Why did it look so familiar? A voice snapped me out of my thoughts;

"Hey!"

My head shot to the coast; the three guards from before had seen me.

"Aw shucks..!" I muttered as I ran

"Get them!"

I felt something fly from behind me, then another in front of me; Arrows

One of them had a bow and was firing not just any old arrows at me, but some huge, weird arrows that looked almost like smaller spears. Not only their size was intimidating, but they also radiated some kind of electric cyan glow.

I almost got hit by another one while inspecting them, but successfully regained myself and continued running

"I'll try to shoot them down, you go find a way to get across!" the archer said to one of his colleagues who just nodded in acknowledgement and ran forward.

It took me a while, but I finally reached land. I hid in the patch of tall grass near the shore as the footsteps approached closer. I tried to calm my breathing as he just ran straight through the grass, not far from me. After his footsteps dimmed and finally got lost in the distance I got up and carefully proceeded to the next room. A pretty funny sight actually; a slice of cheese stuck in some pink crystal, a mouse hole and an echo flower, both squeaking like they're having a conversation.

I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding, and proceeded forward. Despite being pretty roughed up, I got a good chuckle out of that.

Up ahead was a small room; nothing really worth mentioning either, an old telescope with red marker lining around the ocular. Better not to _look into it_. Right, Heh?

.. Erm, anyways.. I continued on to the east… The atmosphere changed again; Like none of that damp dark cave ever happened. Well, sure, the earth and gravel were still moist, but the room was bright, full of Echo flowers and the ceiling and walls too, full of shining rocks. Even though I doubt they'd be strong enough to illuminate the huge cavern on their own, everything mixed in, it actually made the cave really nice. I made my way through it, taking in the scenery now more than ever.

It just felt so calming.. Like nothing could go wrong. It's almost like the whole place was telling me "get a break, you deserve it". I couldn't help but just sit down, and look at the water for a while. My legs were hurting from the walking. I almost nodded off before I realized how much time I've just spent staring into nothing, so I got up and continued walking. I felt a bit better already.

After a while though, the cave went back to its usual dark demeanor. "Welp, it was nice while it lasted" I said to myself and kept walking. I was feeling worn out, some monsters were still going at it, trying to take my soul away. Actually, I don't even think some were trying to harm me because of that.. Some were frustrated, and some just wanted to play or compete.. Pretty sad, isn't it?

Now, I soon this portion of the cave, the water was leaking from the top, almost as if it was raining. There was a box of colorful umbrellas near a stone statue of a hunched person alike a beggar. It looked so old, and water was raining down right onto it. A pretty pathetic sight if you ask me.

I don't know how it was possible, but I kind of felt bad… for a statue? I traded looks with the old stone person and the box of umbrellas, then ended up taking two umbrellas, one of which I put over the haggard-looking thing and other over myself.

Just as I was about to continue walking forward, a sound of music box came from within the statue; a simple, nice melody. I smiled at it and kept walking as the music echoed through the cavern. The walls were still filled with old writings, further explaining the history between humans and monsters.

The rainy hallway just went on and on.. It way maybe even half an hour before I reached the end of it.

* * *

A silhouette of the castle, surrounded by the capital city loomed in the distance as I was climbing up a smaller cliff.

"Boy, does this leaky hallway have an end?" I thought, shaking mud off my hands and descending down the road now made of wooden slabs, like that bridge from earlier. The lighting had again dimmed, giving off a creepy atmosphere, but I could still hear it.

The distant sound of a soothing music box melody.

It filled me with determination to move forward.

Though, not even a few steps forward, a glowing object cut my footsteps off;

One of the guards found me again.

I almost shouted a few.. Err… Words that probably wouldn't be suited for this story telling…

The chase picked up where it left off, the wood road soon again became a bridge, then a maze.

"Looks like somebody had too much time on their hands" would be my first comment if I had the time to make it. The arrows stopped shooting at me from side too. No, now they were shooting at me from below the bridge

I'd probably panic If I didn't remember something

This was just another puzzle, right? And like other puzzles I've encountered so far, this one had an easy way out too, no?

I looked down to the abyss, how were the arrows emerging from the ground? Then I saw it; the pathway the guard was moving around, that had to be it!

I continued running, following the pathway below as the guard yelled threats after me; it was obvious he was getting tired of chasing a kid around.

Soon, the bridge had came to a dead end; I felt my heart sink as the footsteps approached. I was feeling completely hopeless; it was only a matter of time before…

Wait

Far down, I heard distant water rushing.

"Listen human…" the guard behind me spoke, "None have yet escaped me, and you won't be an exception."

"Now just come here calmly or I'll be forced to- hey, what are you-?"

Now, I don't know if I did this intentionally or not, but not even a second afterwards I was freefalling into the abyss below

* * *

I woke up on a bed of golden flowers. I could feel my arm hurting like hell and hear silent ringing in my ears.. Boy, that was a rough fall. Luckily the flowers cushioned my fall, so I guess it wasn't all that bad.

I got up; like I thought, there was a waterfall and a lot of water down there. What I DID NOT expect was a bunch of junk alongside it! I swear if I got a nickel for every brand I recognized… Not only humans pushed monsters down here centuries ago but are throwing trash here now too.. Kinda makes me want to get back at them too, even though I am one.. Doesn't make that much sense now that I say it out loud.

Oh well, I was maybe just cranky as I had just woken up, but my arm hurting, water being up to my knees and the fact that it was crowded with trash weren't actually adding up any positive point to that either. After a while I got out of that dump, and that alone was enough for me to steadily keep going forward.

I guess explaining everything thoroughly from this point would get tedious, so I'm just gonna wrap everything up a bit;

I met a guy that apparently sells supplies and whatnot, his name was Gerson, he's actually a really nice guy, so I figured it was safe to buy some apples from him. Looks like they fixed up my arm (I guess that's what monster food does?)

Then next up was a maze in a dark room full of glowing Crystals and lanterns with dying light. That one was special by that fact itself, others seemed to be filled with water instead..

.. And of course, being the type to hate getting wet or bathe, it took me a while to get around all that. Though, the glowing grass made it much easier to do so. It actually looked nice too. After a while I got back to clear land, but almost immediately went back to the glowing grass road leading north.

Though, an echo flower up ahead caught my eye; I guess it would be interesting to hear what a lone flower had to say. I went up to it and heard a passing conversation;

 _"They can't go any other way than this, so We'll ambush them here. I'll hide in that grass patch and you wait for them up ahead."_

I could almost feel my face go pale

 _"Alright, but won't that Echo Flower be a problem? It probably heard everything we said by now."_

 _"Don't worry. By the time they hear the whole thing…"_

"It's already going to be too late" a voice behind me spoke. My feet as if they were frozen to the ground; they had me cornered.

Now, I couldn't really tell what was happening from then on… I could feel getting impaled through torso, that's what I'm sure about. But what happened next…

I could feel almost as if my insides shattered, leaving me with a hollow feeling; it was pretty scary, to almost feel death crawling up your back. My vision darkened to pure blackness, I felt hopeless and sad. I felt like crying.

I didn't want to die.

Then, the strange part; I heard a voice, of an old man perhaps. It was telling me not to give up. To keep living. To stay DETERMINED

Determined? My mind's grip on that word was slipping for what seemed to be minutes now. Maybe it was a way out?

I mustered all my strength and reached out, thinking what made me determined recently; The convenient grass path?

As silly as that may sound, that was my best guess.

And apparently it worked.

In a flash of white light I was again standing on the glowing grass growing out of black gravel, a few steps away from solid land on which was that same echo flower that cost me my life a minute ago. True, I did feel a bit dizzy, but I remembered what happened. Instead of walking towards the teal flower I ran right through to the next glowing grass trail, up ahead the other guard was waiting for me, and he came before I expected it;

He waited for me hidden by their shield right up on the road; I could hear the other's quick footsteps approaching.

So I said "to hell with it" to myself, ran right past them as they swung my sword at me and headed forward.

Boy, that sure was an adrenalin rush. Running through a field of blue whispering flowers while getting chased by two monster royal guards isn't really the type of thing you live to see every day. And knowing the situation, I'd be happy to see another day with that.

Luckily, I was faster than them; I had light clothing on while they had to run in heavy metal armors. I felt almost dominant, cocky. But just as I made it past the bridge and was about to go into the mountain passage, a flash of light and electrical crackling cut my way

And then it dawned on me

 **There were three of them, right?**

* * *

I had again been respawned, just past the bridge. So that wasn't an one time escape, was it?

I heard the approaching footsteps, I almost ran forward again, but I knew it'd end up in my demise once again, so I was smarter and dodged when the white light went at me.

Instead, it'd hit rock in the mountain passage. It started crumbling down, so it was now or never; I ran through, followed by the third guard.

The cave changed yet again; it became much warmer. No, hot even. I decided to ignore it.

It took me a while of running before I had finally collapsed; but the guard was still almost at full strength. I felt a chill go down my back as the voice behind me spoke, causing me to dart my look over to them

"Human." the female guard spoke, taking off their helmet, "I don't know how you did that back there, but I'll make sure the royal scientist figures that out when I take your petty soul to them!"

I didn't really have the time to take it all in, but here's what I can say about the guard; It was she, it was pretty obvious to me by the armor design; she had a huge scar passing down her cheek, down even to neck and collarbone; she had brunette bob cut hair, honey colored fur, green eyes, a menacing glare, wielded a glowing two-bladed axe and well, if I could list her into an animal species, I'd say it was some kind of a wild cat.

I stumbled back onto my feet; I immediately started looking for something encouraging.

I got this far

I could almost see the castle and the capital.

I could almost smell the fresh air

I could feel it.

I could feel it flowing through my veins.

I

Was

Filled

With

 **DETERMINATION**

* * *

 **A/N: Boy is this a long one!**

 **Well, being the jackass I am, I'll leave you with this cliffhanger. I probably left the last paragraph pretty rough around the edges, counting I'm almost every time finishing this around midnight, so I'm gonna fix everything tomorrow.**

 **That's all, Good Night!**


	4. Secrets Riddled Below

**A/N: Boy, am I overloading myself with fanfics or what? I'm really thinking this up while I write, counting I have to think up things for this one and the Soul Eater story, and dig up old ideas and thoughts I almost abandoned for that Durarara! (had them a while ago as I… Eh… Should've updated them long ago) and other Undertale fanfic (old addition to Zarla's Handplate AU); Not that easy XD**

 **So yeah, this is going to be difficult…**

 **But, BUT! We'll pull through.. Somehow..**

 **Anyways, you know how it is with me, I finish a chapter late and then fix it up tomorrow, so I recommend you read this one again about 8 hours after publishing.**

 **Also DISCLAIMER, the protagonist is describing True Lab as "something like that game… Silent Hill?", because that's the first impression I got when playing through that stage. I do not own that game.**

 **SPOILERS for True Pacifist route**

 **and WARNING for a maybe triggering features in this update.**

 **Anyways, let's go back into the story**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 4:**_

 _ **Secrets Riddled**_

 _ **Below**_

Hah, I knew you'd come back..!

Well.. Not actually.. But I really left off a bad place then, Heh?

….

Right, right, the story…

Well, I was pretty sure I was a goner there.. I mean, me with LV 1 against an experienced Royal Guard. But I knew that if they had their way, that if I dropped the optimism, I would all be over. And I couldn't let that happen.

… Alright, I admit, I died a few times in the process, but soon we both got tired of fighting. The Royal Guard was hotheaded and focused on capturing me, but could soon barely keep herself standing; I-I haven't hit her once though, I swear!

Well, counting I had recently LOADED, I wasn't that exhausted, and made a run for it. A loud sound of rocks falling was a clear sign that the two guards were soon going to find a way through that pile of stone debris and head my way; the only way that seemed good to run or at least hide through was a really old looking building like a lab.

It was locked from the inside, so I had to ACT quick. I snatched the guard's battleaxe (it wasn't as heavy as it looked, believe it or not) and swung at the doors.

I don't know what happened, maybe the electrical charge that I felt in the axe's blade when it hit me earlier fried the lock, because it definitely wasn't my lameass swing.

I pushed the doors aside; the place was dimly lit and messy; there was a huge monitor displaying a few familiar locations, a fridge and a messy table with a... catgirl figurine..? But the approaching footsteps meant that I didn't have the time to worry about that. I hid in the nearest room possible; the restroom.

What became clear to me as soon as I entered the restroom was that it wasn't a restroom; it was an elevator. A rundown elevator.

I thought to myself, _"Everything was going to be fine if I just don't do anything. I just have to hope they didn't find me and wait it o-"_

The trail of my thoughts was cut off by the elevator shaking violently.

Only then I noticed it had no control pad or anything; it was activated when someone came in and headed in one direction, and it was obviously delayed a bit after I walked in because.. Well.. The building is really old!

And.. The sensors maybe didn't pick me up immediately because of my height, b-but! Nevertheless, moving on!

The elevator ride was very slow and loud, so it gave me some time to think. For example, the building looked abandoned, but was locked from the inside, and it seemed that life in there was just.. Stopped at some point in time. A thought occurred to me, that my mother maybe had something to do with that, but I shoved it in the back of my mind. I didn't want to believe what Sans said, but it was pretty obvious, now especially, isn't it?

Then, the ride came to a sudden stop; I was confused and got up, but the elevator shook violently once again and I could feel my feet leave the floor; I was freefalling with the elevator; one of the cables must've snapped. I felt dizzy, disoriented, and I panicked.

* * *

I woke up in the now completely dark elevator with pain in my back. Man, that was such a rough fall, I don't know how I even survived it.

Nevertheless, I got up and searched for some kind of a light source; even though it was faint, I could see a slight opening between the doors. I dug my fingers between them and pulled them aside, and made my way out; it seemed like a lab.

A lab under a lab? Seems kinda funny now that I say it out loud.

But no, even though that lab up there was old, there wasn't even a single particle of dust. And counting that dust it just human or animal skin that they throw away for new to form, that meant Nothing went in there at all. Not an animal, not a human, not a monster, not anybody or anything. It was sterile and frozen in time.

This, however, was something awful.

It was dirty, it was old, it just gave off the vibe of that game.. That game.. What was it called again? Silent Hill?

Yeah, like THAT. The aqua-green tiled floor and walls of the same color took on an awful dirty shade, most of the lights hanging from the ceiling weren't working and those that did were flickering and shining very dimly, the walls were riddled with cracks, with some monitors here and there, the whole place was filled with some kind of fog and seemed like some mutilated abomination will jump out at you and just that fact alone sent the chills down my spine.

In short, it was dirty, it was dimly lit, it was CREEPY.

I wanted to go back up, but the elevator was obviously out of order for good. There HAD to be some other way out.

And while I didn't want to, I pressed on ahead. I was bummed out by my dumb decision. Not just hiding in the elevator, but the whole idea of GOING onto the mountain in the first place. I seriously had no leads on what to do; Should I try to find some kind of a power source? Should I look around if there's someone in the facility?

The latter was obviously a stupid idea, even though whoever locked themselves in here might've been down here the whole time. Nevertheless, I decided to look for some kind of a generator. Not long passed, I already found my solution. Or, err.. It wasn't immediate…

I found a note that said something like powering up the whole lab and elevators would take four keys. There were no keys around, so I just assumed I'd have to find them on my own.

I normally liked puzzles and quests. I loved them in fact, and my mother was always.. How should I put this.. _Puzzled_ by my love for puzzles. Heh. Aw jeez, why does this scarf start itching every time I make a word play or something? But, Erm, this was one step too far, even for me. I had to find four differently colored keys, and unlock four locks of the same color to get the generator working and the doors to open.

Now, Puzzles were the thing that I liked. Quests in real life horror houses? Not really my cup of tea.

Still, as I had no clue on what else to do, so I decided to go along with it and started looking for the keys.

Now, it'd be really awful if I had to drag everything I experienced while I was down there, it'd take me forever. So, I'm just going to say the most important things.

Now, I could go in two directions from there, and I decided for left because hey, thing of habit. There was really nothing important to see, three medical beds and three sinks.

I thought, since I had brushed my hand across one of the medical beds while passing and picked up something white while doing so, I should wash my hands, right? Because, aside from just being sticky and gross, that stuff was giving me an uneasy feeling.

None of the sinks actually worked. One didn't have any water flowing, other I couldn't even move the handle! And the third…

Well, I realized where that sticky white stuff came from.

Three… Things… That looked like a few monsters melted together, came out of the tube. They looked like they're going to fall apart any moment now, but weren't doing so. They said in a singsongy voice: "Come join the fun"

I couldn't do anything, but just felt as if I needed to show them something. I took out my phone, I heard voices from the receiver, "Come join the fun"

Though, they quickly became bored with me after I refused. They disappeared, leaving a red key in the drain. I took it and soon found the lock it belonged to. I took care of that one and headed out.

I hoped I'd never have to see them again. My wish, however, was not fulfilled. Quite the opposite actually, the place was FILLED with them!

Though, I remembered a few parts of every single of those things I encountered afterwards.. From other monsters I had SPARED earlier, back in Snowdin, Ruins, and that watery cave. Yeah, that's right. I didn't always run away, because sometimes I couldn't. They wouldn't let me. So, instead I just had to find a way to assure them that I meant to harm, and that wasn't always as easy as talking. I had to behave like them, tell or do things to appease them. And counting those things were obviously some kind of a fusion, I had to do multiple of those things.

Long story short, it seemed like to get to a certain place or get a certain key, I'd have to FIGHT and SPARE one of those creatures. Anyways, the generator was soon working and the power went back on. I must say, some of those things were pretty depressing. And not only those things. A whole BUNCH of other stuff.

Like what? Err… Well, there was this one room, the doorknob was cold… Like really cold.. Inside was nothing but a chair with a lab coat and glasses in front of it, covered in dust. And on the pipe below a noose was tied… I felt my heart sink.

I looked away, I knew what happened from just one glimpse at it, and I did not feel comfortable looking into it any further.

In the corner was a busted up old robot, covered by a sheet. I uncovered it, because I was curious. I could see it was attempted to be fixed, but it really looked beyond repair. And whoever was trying to do so, realized that too it seems. Back then, it seemed like chills going down my spine, but now I know what it was.

 _It was the feeling of my sins, **crawling on my back**._

I also saw some blueprints, for another robot. I took out my phone and snapped a picture of it. Again, I felt that this may be of some importance, but I did not feel comfortable taking it. It would feel almost like… _Stealing_ …

Anyways, next up, those things too.. Their back-story is kinda depressing. They were monsters that "Fell down" and practically awaited death. It reminded me of something I had watched in a show on television; It's like when human becomes brain dead. Their brain, or some parts of it die out, but they live for a short while in a coma before finally dying because their body cannot complete functions without a command center. Similar to how an empire can't work without a leader. Even though monsters' bodies worked differently than that, I think it was something like that.

Anyways, they were injected with large amounts of DETERMINATION I had previously used to cheat on death several times, and counting monsters' bodies haven't got enough physical matter to handle that, counting their bodies are made of their soul, which is mostly magic, and…

Huh? How do I know all that?

Well, that's the thing… While I was down there, I found those Entries… Explaining what happened to those poor beings. Speaking of information, I found those really old books about monster anatomy, and a few weird audio visual tapes, but with none actually having any video content. I think they forgot to remove the caps off the camera. For some reason, I felt a huge weight building up in my chest while watching, err… Listening to them.. Not a very pleasant feeling, counting it could've been from the impact when I hit the ground along with that elevator. Anyhow, I'd like… If possible, bring them back to their families… But counting they might misunderstand and… Y'know, they kinda ran away… I also found one tape that consisted only of strange symbols. I assumed that was just some nonsense.

Hm?

...

Oh, okay, sorry.

Anyways, The entries were all jumbled up, and it took me a while to go through them all. The last one, was immediately before I exited the lab through an elevator. It was… disturbing to say at least..

"I've chosen a candidate. I haven't told ASGORE yet, because I want to surprise him with it... In the center of his garden, there's something special. The first golden flower, that grew before all the others. The flower from the outside world. It appeared just before the queen left. I wonder... What happens when something without a SOUL gains the will to live?"

I felt an awful chill go down my spine. I knew it was about that flower. How did I know? That was the thing. I didn't. It wasn't a hunch or anything, _I_ _just knew_ , even though I didn't. It freaked the hell out of me, and the fact that after I read it, it just shifted into a creepy red smile.

I'm not an expert or anything, but I'm pretty darn sure shady experiment entries weren't supposed to do that.

The underground was pretty scary because I wasn't used to it, but this? This place, ladies and gentlemen, takes the whole goddamn prize!

I had enough of that, I ran away from the monitor and headed for that elevator with which I arrived. I turned on the generator that monitored to power of the elevator, and there was no other way back up other than that, right? Right?

 _Well, apparently not._

As soon as I stepped into the mid room before the gigantic doors the doors closed behind AND in front of me.

The room shook violently. That didn't happen when I passed through it the first time.

Of course it didn't.

 _Because the elevator's power generator was off_

The speed the room, no, the elevator, escalated up caught me off guard. It's like gravity was legitimately increased on me. I fell to the ground while the elevator went up and up and up and up and up, until…

It suddenly stopped.

The flashing red lights stopped.

Everything stopped.

* * *

I carefully got up and went over to one of the doors; the one that I could actually even budge.

It took me longer than with the last elevator; Not because it was in better shape than the it, but because the entrance was bound by _thorny vines_.

Even with that setback I succeeded to push through and got out of the elevator; it was stuck just a little above a floor where I could exit, so I crawled out. Man, this place was a real workout for me.

As soon as I got out I smelled the soothing smell of ozone in the air, I saw bright blue walls and a pathway above a huge pit that would've looked like abyss if it wasn't illuminating strong, electrical white glow.

I had heard about this, not sure if from a monster or from a book down there in that awful lab, but I knew what it was, and this time I was positive about that fact;

That was the CORE, the power source for the whole Underground. Just how the hell did I manage to end up here? And it looked like I was SPARED from the walking too, it seemed to be its very end, just one more room and….

And…

Ugh, I remember that feeling. I was so exhausted, hungry, beaten up, but glad I made it from that depressing horror lab, I just had to sit down and rest a little. I sat between the elevator and pathway leading to the elevator that'd bring me to the capital, to rest my feet. I placed my bag on my lap and dug around it; I still had that slice of butterscotch pie. Surprisingly, it was still as toasty and smelled like it was freshly baked. That's monster food for ya, Heh.

Anyways, while I munched it all up, I couldn't help but feel sorry for that poor lady Toriel… I left her all alone in the ruins… Well, not all alone, there was Sans too, but…

And then it occurred to me, I haven't heard from him in a while. At that exact moment, when I had finished the pie, my phone rang. I picked up, only to be greeted by a tired sounding voice from the other side.

"hey kid, what's the deal? i've been trying to reach you for last 4 hours or so" the skeleton spoke, his voice giving away that he has been, even if little, either worried or upset. Or both. But at that moment I was too busy trying to fathom the fact that I had spent that much time mostly SNOOZING in that god forsaken place. Of course it had no reception, it was like two miles under the Underground's ground level!

"H..how did you get this number?"

"i took a wild guess kiddo. i thought ya died or something like that"

I could almost feel that was a lie. He was different from others. He seemed to know what was up better than anyone, he knew the uses and origins of DETERMINATION too well (I noticed while he was explaining LOVE and other acronyms to me), to be just nobody, and I'd bet mine that he knew about my death-life fiddling.

"Oh, uh.. Sorry about that… I'm fine."

"good to hear. still sticking with our agreement?"

"Of course I am!" I said with as much confidence I could muster after everything I experienced lately.

"heh, good to hear too.. say kiddo, where are you that it took you that long to pick up? i haven't seen ya anywhere around my stands."

"Stands? You mean those with snow on the roof?"

"of course. i sell hotdogs"

"But… There are so many!"

"heh, what can i say, i'm all over the place"

"Uh.. Okay then.. Anyways, I was stuck in some kind of lab place, but now I'm at the end of the CORE, by an… Uh… Now out of order elevator…"

He paused for a while, then resumed

"welp, i think you'd better be careful then. i think someone's still waiting up ahead of you before you face Undyne."

"What?" I was genuinely confused at that point, how did he know all that?

"Sans?" there was a clicking sound; he disconnected. Why was he being so shady?

"Sans, you bag of bones, answer me!" I yelled into the microphone even though I knew he wasn't on the line anymore, I tried dialing him again, but he wouldn't pick up.

I soon realized it was pointless and got back up. I felt a bit better after eating the pie, and despite being a bit angry at the skeleton, was good to go. I couldn't stay mad at him anyways, he started growing on me, and I could tell that it wasn't just one sided. N-nevertheless, don't get any funny idea, I liked the skeleton because well, he got worried about me, and he helped me back in Snowdin. I will make sure to pay him back for that, I hate staying in debts.

I stepped into the room leading to the elevator. It was dark, and the doors closed behind me after I stepped in; I was getting pretty tired of that trick already.

I saw a tall figure's outline in shadow, in front of me.

"Oh… So you really came…" a cold, robotic voice spoke, "I already know most of the things about you so… Let me introduce myself…"

Two light blue reflectors illuminated the silhouette; it was a Tall, human-like robot; he had short white hair, black and blue headphones, a ribbed blue area on the gray metal of his face, reaching from his eye to the jaw he had some sort of a small "x" symbol under his eye; He wore plain, long grey trousers, blue gloves that reached halfway to his elbow (or at least were it would've been, his arms were divided into many fragments), and his chest was plain metal or plastic, I couldn't really tell; some holes that might've been speakers or microphone were in form of a musical note and two circular handles that I didn't know what were for by it. He had grey shoulder guards that were pointed down, with two black and blue speakers on each department between arms and chest, upper one bigger and bottom smaller like they bound his shoulder guards together with the chest. and a collar of the same color with a black musical note in the middle, separating his fragmented neck from his chest. He had a small department in his abdomen containing a white monster soul in some kind of fluid, grey belt, and grey, almost empty, droopy eyes. They almost looked blank. It looked familiar.

He looked like an entertainment robot, a DJ.

Then I remembered, he was the robot from the blueprints.

"I'm MetaBlook, the last and greatest invention of brilliant Professor Alphys. I was made to be the Underground's new star of entertainment and hope. My job is to keep the residents of this cave entertained…" he looked to me with an almost scary, sharp glare. "… And exterminate every human that dares to set foot here…"

The ground shook as it raised into a podium, and continued raising as he shouted:

"Lights! Camera! Action!"

* * *

 **A/N: Wow, this is a seriously long one. And I did it all in one go!**

 **Plus, I have the time to start working on the next update, I have to speed things up a bit if I want to make it.**

 **I should probably check for grammar and story mistakes, but I'm first gonna take a liiil' break. Anyways, that's all for now, if you didn't understand the MetaBlook's appearance explanation, look at my DeviantART page; stupidusernamepolicy, I did like three submissions with his design.**

 **This on the cover is a bit outdated design, so I recommend you look at the newer one that goes by the same title this fanfiction does, and there's also a short panel comic of a scene I'm planning to do in the next update.**

 **And yes, SPOILER ALERT, MetaBlook was made by Alphys, following the design of Mettaton and placing Napstablook's soul into the vessel.**

 **And also YES I'M USING A HE PRONOUN FOR NAPSTABLOOK.**

 **Just to warn you, I'm not going to take critiques for that because I took on a more.. Male design for the robot, and it's just easier for me that way. I mean, assuming Napstablook's cousin, Happstablook, is Mettaton, we know nothing of their gender, but as an entertainment robot, Mettaton's a male, and now so is Blooky. If you disagree with my logic could you at least be silent for as long as the next chapter? Thank you.**

 **Anyways, sorry because of that all, I hope this long chapter makes up for the wait and the possible wait too. Buh bye**


	5. The Good And Evil Within

**A/N: Yyyyep, it's me, bringing another update.**

 **Welp, my holiday break is about done, and it will be official on Monday, so I might as well do this one.**

 **No long intro, let's just roll it before Monday rolls along and I have to put this on hiatus.**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 5:**_

 _ **The Good And**_

 _ **Evil Within**_

Hm..?

Oh, oh, right, sorry, I spaced out…

…..

Why am I distracted you ask?

Hah, well… We're nearing this point in story..

 **That point in time when I screwed up.**

You see, after I had died about a dozen of times at that robot- Erm, I mean, MetaBlook… I really thought about reaching for that knife I brought, but I felt as if I had to prove a point, to that skeleton, and to… _Them_ … (Of course, at that time I had no idea they were even watching)

If to nobody at least to myself.

Well, anyways, he seemed to be aware of me skipping the timeline back and forth, just like Sans. And BOY, wasn't he hard to convince! I'd been pretty skilled at dodging by then, but _seriously_. If I died like 12 times just up until then, you can only imagine.

He threw musical notes, off-key tones that hurt my ears, lasers, glowing music disks and punches without _breaking a sweat_. I was going crazy! He just stared off any word I spoke, like I was some filthy peasant. He only talked to the "audience", or the cameras. I was afraid to raise my voice any further because, frankly, my throat hurt and I was afraid everything would start to even more if I pissed him off. Though, after a while, I had no other choice. I called out to him, he wouldn't even flinch.

He didn't respond to his "Name" he had called himself. Like he couldn't hear me. Was it the earphones?

I went straight at him and snatched them away then shouted his name. A slight reaction, but not enough.

Well, it didn't really matter. I was stripped of the rest of my health points in an instant a moment later.

Though, while reaching for the word LOAD that shone bright violet light of DETERMINATION in that swirl of darkness called The Afterlife, I remembered something. The sheet with blueprints, _his_ blueprints, down at that lab, contained a different name. I couldn't remember it, and counting if I didn't LOAD soon I wouldn't get a chance to. So, as soon as I respawned I took out my phone and looked through the pictures.

I smirked a little upon learning the name.

"Bingo."

Satisfied with myself, I ran into the last room before the end of the CORE and faced the robot again. This time, he shared no words (Well, he hasn't since the first encounter, that's kinda what gave him being aware of my timeline fiddling away in the first place).

Though, he seemed to be caught off guard by my confident look. I'd bet the 30 g I had at the time that he could see the DETERMINATION literally shining out my eyes.

After he threw the first attack (which I dodged without a problem, I had a dozen of times to practice that one) I ran straight for him. He seemed to be distraught by that, and even more so when he realized I had snatched his precious headset away.

I called out

"Napstablook!"

He flinched, but looked only angrier. From that point on, he started attacking like he was actually trying to hurt me; Not because of the show, not because of the viewers. But like things got _personal_.

I kept calling out his name whenever I got the chance to, but he was not making things easy for me. Each attack was more fierce and rage filled than the other, and I was almost at my limit. He was draining my HP fast, and I didn't feel like loading. As much of a safe escape it was, it still hurt to die. He was aching too, I could see it, but even so I just felt like… I don't know, I had to finish it this time. And even the huge screen in the background that said "RATINGS" was raising at immense speed. I didn't know who those monsters were rooting for at this point, nor if either Toriel or Sans were watching, but the tensity of the moment... It filled me with indescribable DETERMINATION.

I called out the last time at the top of my lungs, the SOUL's original name.

"NAPSTABLOOK!"

Boy, how dramatic that must have sounded.

The robot, MetaBlook, stopped midst his attack and his eyes widened more. His arms, that were shaking and flying through the air just a second ago, stopped dead in their movements. He seemed almost as if he had broke out of a trance, but regained himself in a moment's notice and threw more attacks.

I thought it was completely hopeless, until…

"STOP IT!" he screamed, "STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT!"

With a lot of effort I dodged the best I could, but at the end I was still left hanging with a single health point.

"HOW DARE YOU SAY MY NAME AFTER EVERYTHING YOU'VE DONE?!" he shouted, his voice starting to get shaky "YOU WERE THE ONE THAT KILLED HIM! YOU'RE THE REASON SHE'S DEAD TOO!"

I gazed up at him, obviously struggling to keep conscious.

"YOU MADE SO MANY OF THEM DISAPPEAR!" Tears started streaming down- no, _up_ his face. "AND BECAUSE OF YOU, HE… He…"

He had trailed off. He didn't even seem to notice me anymore, he just sobbed. It really hurt to see someone like that. I shuffled over to him, and slumped down with my arms over his shoulders, making some weak hug. Boy, I probably looked like some twerp.

"I'm sorry for all this…" I said in a tone just above a whisper, "I'm sorry for the things my mother has done… Kill me all you want, if it will atone.. And…"

I pulled away and looked him straight in the eye and gave him a patient smile. "I'm just sorry I couldn't meet Mettaton.. Mom told such amazing stories about him.. You're a great successor, and… I know how it is to lose someone you know really well too.. I lost my dad a few years ago..."

He broke down in tears and hugged me again, with only managing to push through a silent "I'm sorry.."

After I chose to spare him, there was a small text under the yellow "Spare" option, saying "Really not up to it right now. Sorry."

* * *

After we got everything cleared out we had a little chat. Y'know, the usual stuff, I returned him his earphones, and he gave me a few items to help me heal before meeting the empress. He said that Monster food replenishes health points very quickly and even apologized for killing me… Uh.. How many times again..?

"I wish you a lot of luck." Napstablook spoke, "But, um… Even though empress is really mad at you and your mother, I think she's not going to turn a blind eye on the fact that you haven't turned a single monster to dust so far…" he finished with a small smile then turned to the cameras.

"That's it for tonight, Underground! Thank you for being a great audience!"

I smiled and headed up ahead, but as soon as I got into the elevator I thought about reporting to Sans. I dialed his number and thankfully, this time he picked up.

"yea?"

"Hey Sans!"

"oh hey kiddo. did not expect you to ring me this early."

"Yeah, well, I just wanted to check up, y'know, to let you know I made it."

"oh, no worries 'bout that, Tori and i saw the whole thing."

"Oh.. Didn't know you two watched TV. How's Toriel when we're at it?"

"She almost stormed off to the CORE to split you two up, but i'd say she's pretty proud of how you got out of it. apparently she taught your mom to do the same."

"Well.. That's actually nice to hear" I said with a smile

"… you ain't calling for just that, kid."

".. Well, actually, no…" I sighed, "I seriously have no idea what to do what I get to the empress… I'm pretty sure you saw me, I'd get _boned_ …"

A silent snort from the other side followed the last sentence. Only then I realized,

"Oh man, haha, no pun intended there… But, the point is, I don't even know much about her. I mean, I know that she's a righteous hero that seeks justice and that she's crazy strong, but not much more."

"wait wait whoa, how do you even know these things to start with?"

"Oh, uhm… Well, my mom, used to tell me stories that now I'm pretty much connecting with monsters down here.. Like, about the undying heroine named Undyne, The glittery magic robot named Mettaton, The ingenious scientist named Alphys, The goodwill bake sale spider Muffet, The kind king who followed down a wrong path called Asgore, and the aspiring skeleton chef wearing… a red scarf… called…"

I almost dropped the phone. I could feel my face going pale

"… Papyrus…"

I cannot believe how long it took me to put two and two together. I suddenly understood why the scarf was itching every time I said a bad joke.

"kid?"

At that moment the elevator shook violently and the line had cut off. The gravity increased on me again, which indicated that the elevator had went crazy once again and was flying up at a worrying speed.

Then the ride had came to a sudden stop and I hit the ceiling. Good that I didn't break my nose, counting how hard I hit it.

I got up and took a peek outside of the elevator; I was at the capital, no doubt. But the momentary awe was just what it was; momentary, before I got pushed out of the elevator by something, and the doors closed right behind me. When I looked, they were bound by vines.

"Jesus…" I spat agitatedly, "Is every damn elevator in this place broken or overrun by weeds?" I headed forward, walking through the capital, I overheard monsters talk- no, it was almost as if they were talking _directly to me_

They told me the sad story of the royal family. How the first human that fell into the Underground got adopted as a part of the royal family, but became very ill. How their brother, prince Asriel, was wracked with grief, absorbed the human's soul, and fulfilled their final wish: to carry them to the flower bed in their home village. However, the humans attacked the boy thinking he had slaughtered the child, but he did not fight back despite his great power. He died in the garden of the Underground.

I had a weird Déjà vu while listening to the story. It made my skin crawl.

Then, the story went to a more recent tale, about the eighth child to ever come into the Underground. How, while they were there, numerous monsters were killed, including the Underground's star, The king, and the empress' best friend and student from the time while she was the head of the Royal Guard. As the human had left the Underground the six human souls that were collected before disappeared without a trace. The Queen tried to return to the throne, but was thrown off by their current Empress. She had sworn revenge on every human that descends down there, and that so far there's only a single soul missing.

"When Empress Undyne catches the human, we will all be free"

"Sunshine is almost within our reach"

"Aren't you happy?"

"We're all almost free."

* * *

I had hurried past the capital, feeling more guilty than ever. But, what was waiting for me had to be the one to take the cake.

I had stepped into a golden tiled hall- no, I couldn't really tell if it was gold or if it was the… Sunshine…?

"hey" a tired voice ahead snapped me out of my thoughts. I'd turned around;

Of course, it was Sans.

"How'd you get here..?" I must've sounded pretty stupid, "That elevator is completely blocked off!"

"i have my ways, but i guess that's what made you end the call"

"I didn't end it." I protested, "The elevator shook and you cut the call."

"… something fishy's going on here.." Sans said after a longer pause, face bending into a more grim, suspicious expression

There was another longer silence, and he stared at me just like he did back at the ruins, only… It wasn't exactly directed at me as a whole, but more like he was staring directly into my SOUL

After a while I spoke up again, "Uh-uhm… Sans…"

He'd raised his look back to my eyes again

"I'd.. I'd want you to have this." I said, taking my favorite scarf off and putting it forward, "It's rightfully yours anyways… Papyrus' scarf…"

".. kid-"

"My mother told me stories about him." I cut him off, "She described him as a kind, innocent person. As a person who was really optimistic and motivated. A person that didn't like puns, but liked just about everything and everyone else, a person that _loved_ his brother." I kept talking with a serious expression, "I knew there was always a reason I liked this scarf besides it being soft. There was just something about it that vibrated positivity every time I looked at it, how it started to itch every time I told a pun, how it always seemed a bit redder each time I went to make or solve puzzles and riddles and brain teasers."

"…"

"I heard that the monsters believe that if you spread a monster's dust onto their favorite thing, they'll keep on living in it. Your brother still, if nothing at least partially, lives in this scarf. What my mother done is unforgivable, and I don't think there's a really good explanation if he was really like that; Sweet. Innocent. Kind. But she seems to regret it deeply. She always gave this scarf a sad look. She never washed the dust off it. She always said that I should be good, because the 'Good Skellie Papy' is always watching me." I had smiled a little, "She became a better person, so please don't hurt her too bad when you get to the surface."

"Kid." Sans' tone suddenly got very serious, "Are you saying what I think you are?"

"I had enough time to think." I had sighed. "I cannot defeat Undyne, and I think there is a very small chance that I will get through to her, but I have to take it. I will not fight back, I will let her vent out the bottled up rage out on me, though, I will not surrender my soul as simple as that."

I caught a glimpse of Sans' confused, even a bit worried glare. To be honest, even I barely knew what I was going with there.

"Come on, Sans. Did you really think I'd let myself get killed or kill after getting so far to see my mother again, without harming another monster? I'd sink into the ground before I did either, whoops, a bit too late there." I chuckled and put on a reassuring grin, "There are Six human souls stored there, right? I just have to use my soul power, combined with them, to break the barrier. Nobody else has to die permanently. As simple as that! And I'm sure that after Undyne kills me enough times, she'd be willing to listen!"

"… Kid." Sans spoke with a grim smile, "I can see that a lot of Papyrus rubbed off on you… You're really optimistic towards this, aren't you?"

"… What do you-?"

"The old souls will break in the process, and yours will either end the same or you'd be left almost drained of life, but that's your least problem you see.." the two shimmering lights in his eye sockets had disappeared, "I sense a presence inside of you, a murderous instinct, an entity that's been towing with you this whole time, a parasite that's been getting stronger with each and every LOAD."

"… Sans..?" I probably sounded pretty scared, because that's the only thing I'd been feeling. Fear. That cold voice pierced my mind.

"You see kid… They are slowly taking over… And as soon as they posses your SOUL entirely, you'd be their puppet… Prone to their every commend… ….. Kid.." he looked up, a cold grin plastered over his face with his left eye glowing bright blue, "I admire your hard work…. But I can't let that happen."

I'd felt like my whole body got three tons heavier. Then, I just rose into the air, and before I'd understood what was happening, I'd been slammed into the left wall, then the right, then the ceiling and floor, before I dropped to ground again

"Y'see, kid… I'd be happy if you wouldn't LOAD or RESTART after this…" he shrugged, "It ain't picnic for me either, but it'd make things a lot easier…"

"SANS!" I shouted, but my words escaped me as soon as I saw a row of bones getting sent at me at a maddening speed. I jumped over them with a lot effort, counting my legs were like they were made of lead.

"'Cause, y'see.. The best way you can prove you're for monsters…" A huge skull, like a dinosaur's formed behind him, and shot a huge beam at me. I threw myself to the side, but I felt my whole body get lighter.

He sent a whole mess of obstacles at me; bones moving at a maddening pace and more skulls that shot deadly beams. I ran towards him, dodging the obstacles and grabbed both his wrists;

"Some thanks I get!" I yelled at him angrily, " 'Oh, cool, you stuck to our promise and made a plan, but I'll have to kill you because of some GODDAMN FREELOADER!' " I looked into his eyes, I could feel the rage radiating out them "I have good control over myself, Sans. And I'm going to prove it!"

I pushed him away, dropped the scarf at his feet and hurried ahead to the throne room. I could not describe how angry I felt.

No, actually, I can.

It felt like getting backstabbed by your only ally in a country of magic monstrosities that all tried to assassinate me. I could trust _no one_. I could turn to _nobody_. I was left to find a peaceful solution to _everything_ because of something I promised that Bonehead, only to have him try to _KILL ME_.

 _JUST LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE_

I felt betrayed like never.

"He should wear that scarf…" I murmured, "So that a little of his brother rubs off on him for a change…"

I wiped a tear from my eye and walked ahead to the barrier.

My SOUL filled with rage, and I was DETERMINED

DETERMINED to end this journey _here_ and _now_.

* * *

 **A/N: Whew, two long ones in a row.**

 **And I managed to do this one in a single sitting!**

 **Welp, I have a feeling the next one will be finale or semi-finale, meeting Undyne and all, Chara and stuff.**

 **If you can't wait, there are spoilers for the next chapter on my DeviantART page: art/Rejected-Control-Understory-The-Aftermath-581297092**

 **So… Yeah, SPOILERS, read on your own risk.**

 **BUH BYEEEEEE**


	6. A Slight Setback

**A/N: AAAAH I'M SO SORRY YOU GUYS FOR NOT UPDATING SINCE LAST YEAR OR SO I GUESS PLEASE DON'T KILL ME ;-;**

 **I've kinda lost inspiration and didn't know how the face-off with Undyne would go, so I've been delaying and delaying it.. I'm glad all of you were patient though!**

 **So, what triggered this sudden update? Four words:**

 **Kagerou Days by Sansloid.**

 **Yes, that god-forsaken feels nest I just** _ **HAD**_ **to hit.**

 **And I was consumed by the inspiration to do** _ **something.**_ **Something equally horrible. Should I learn the lyrics? Should I draw? Or…**

 **Should I update a fanfic headed for a huge feelsy crash?**

 **The decision fell I guess, so I'm having it on repeat while writing this.**

 **Welp, WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER: Strong language, character death, graphic depicts of violence and emotional distress.**

 **Also,** _ **one IMPORTANT detail**_ **I'm too lazy to edit about the MetaBlook chapter; The protagonist's father isn't** _ **dead**_ **, but** _ **dying.**_ **He has Leukemia and they couldn't find a donor. The protagonist is all beat up over it, but so far didn't let it distract her, because she had more important things to do, like getting out of that mountain; If her DETERMINATION faltered, then she's done for.**

 **I just might rewrite that one, actually.**

 **Anyways, that's all. Hope ya enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 6:**_

 _ **A Slight Setback**_

Ah, I remember it.

I was so angry. I felt enraged beyond any description.

 _"That jerk! So much for his promise! Well, let's see if I keep mine!"_ I thought while marching through the castle. I was so occupied with my thoughts that I didn't pay much attention to my surroundings, and was soon encountered by a certain Yellow Flower. Even when I noticed him, I kept ignoring his beckoning. Spoiler: A big mistake.

He became angry with me and wrapped a vine around my leg, causing me to trip and nearly fall. I snapped again, my voice becoming so high and angry that my throat felt as it was being ripped apart by my words;

"What do you want goddamn weed?!"

"My, you're so rude." he spoke in mock hurt, "And so loud…"

" _And I don't take kindly to those._ " He said before tugging and raising his vine, with my leg still wrapped up in it, and hung me upside down. The thorns hurt, but I had bigger worries; Such as, blood slowly pouring into my head and my bag with everything that could help nearly falling from my grip, but all that disappeared once I saw his expression; It was the terrifying.

I might hadn't told you, but I encountered him multiple times on my journey; sometimes I'd spot him stalking me, sometimes he'd go out of his way to talk to me and give me tips, sometimes he'd tell the guards on me and I'd end up being chased by the residents of the Underground, sometimes he'd pop up with one of his scary faces or make one when I was being difficult, sometimes he'd just flat out annoy me. He was almost always present in a way, some twisted version of a caring friend that'd offer comfort in difficult times. Heh, after all, there was plenty of room in his heart for me; It was completely devoid of any real feelings or friends. I could tell I was just his playtoy, a human for his amusement.

Though, after that encounter with Sans I was in no mood to chat, and I was going to let him know, but…

That expression he had…

It was the most sinister one I've seen so far.

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I know that you're angry. I've been too. That smiley trashbag goes back on his promises the whole time. Like.. With your mom?" he chuckled, his voice being like a thousand snakes all going around my body. "It was around 50 to 90 resets before she finally got past him. He hurt her."

" _He hurt her._ " echoed throughout my head.

"S..stop it…" I spoke quietly, but he was too occupied with his own word to even notice me.

"Not only him, but almost every living monster in this god forsaken place. Of course, she got rid of that annoying robot, that wuss we used to call a king and smiley trashbag's annoying brother…" Instinctively I reached up- or better said down to grab my scarf for comfort, but it wasn't there anymore. I handed it out to Sans.

"… But There are people that are still alive who hurt her as bad. The goat at the Ruins burned her down countless times as she called her ' _her child_ ', and the Empress impaled her with words and Spears until the whole pathway was stained with her blood. And she _let them go_." Now the words were more like daggers, impaling just the right places. I felt like I was just used. I felt empty, hopeless. Yet, out of that nothing, rage ignited from a spark into a mighty fire.

"Nobody ever wanted your redemption. Nobody ever wanted _you_. They all only wanted your SOUL..."

"Stop it stop it STOP IT!" I trashed violently, trying to somehow escape the grip and dust the damned flower.

A screeching laugh pierced the air.

"You get it now, don't you!? In this world it's KILL OR BE KILLED."

A few warm drops of water fell onto the ground below me.

"Ah yes, I there's the look. Bitter, angry. That's the _real_ DETERMINATION, my friend." he spoke quietly and confidently, but missed an important detail;

I wasn't only pissed at them.

 _I was pissed at him._

I took out my switchblade and slashed the nasty vines holding me prisoner; I dropped to the ground, blood flowing from my head back into its respected places as I quickly scrambled to my feet, holding the switchblade tightly. Only that wasn't me.

I held my weapon like it was second nature. Or maybe I was just hazy from hanging upside down like a lemur and I imagined I looked threatening while I looked like a confused, red mess of a human. Which would make more sense, actually, because on Flowey's face I saw no fear, not the slightest traces of intimidation. Anger, sure. Annoyance, of course. And the most discouraging of all, amusement.

"You… Heheh.. You're _crying_." was all he managed before he threw his head back on his stem and broke into a fit of hysterical laughter.

It was a weird thing to point out, especially with such a face. He was humored by my breakdown still, but yet he seemed.. Disappointed. Like I was close to completing something and then just gave up.

"YOU IDIOT!" he said between the ever so increasing laughter, "DO YOU THINK YOU CAN ESCAPE YOUR NATURE?"

At that point I was seriously terrified, and the vines crawling on the walls didn't help my case. It wasn't before long that I had to cut my way through them. It was a long and literally thorny road, but I managed to get away.

* * *

When I was sure that I was more or less safe I dropped down; I was littered with cuts and bruises inflicted by that goddamned plant, and my legs looked the worst of all.

I dragged myself against the wall and hugged my bag, still holding onto the switchblade for dear life. In no time I was a sobbing mess. Like some left-behind five year old.

I don't know how long I've been just sitting there, sobbing and wailing. The corridor was lonely, and I was mostly thankful for that, but I've had no one to seek comfort in; It was obvious that Flowey was just exploiting my feelings, and I had absolutely no trust in anyone down there anymore. I felt lonely, confused, angry and most of all, betrayed. I didn't want to move forward, I didn't want to FIGHT Undyne and, even after all that, I still didn't want to hurt anybody. I just wanted my parents. A part of me felt weak for thinking like that, _for even feeling like that_.

Though, aside from my self-pitying, I barely acknowledged my surroundings, let alone a short figure on the other side of the corridor.

"…. kid.."

I jumped to my feet, my, well, everything hurting so much I wanted to just scream at him and everyone else in the underground. But instead I extended my arms, weapon shaking in my hands, sharp end pointed right under his chin; he was no more than couple of feet away from me.

"Get away from me!" I yelled, voice cracking after the first syllable. Man, I must've looked terrible; Full of fresh wounds and injuries, face stained with bitter tears and a hateful, hurt look in my eyes.

"How could you!? How could you do that to me, Sans!?" I yelled, shaking, "Why!? Why did you try to kill me!? Why show up now of all times!?"

I couldn't quite make out his expression, maybe it was shame?

"Why not show up a couple of minutes earlier when a flipping talking flower tried to _fucking murder me_!? SAY SOMETHING, GOD DAMN YOU!"

The first shock of me pointing a weapon at him had eased a bit. He was now staring straight at me, his expression saying what he couldn't.

Remorse. Sadness. Shame. Fear. He was almost begging for forgiveness with those big eyes, visibly tired from the countless resets and sleepless nights, many caused by a single person. When I think back, more than a decade passed since it all happened. He didn't move on, he obviously couldn't, when he had no closure. I was still used to that big grin that masked it all, he surely hid it from the nice old lady Toriel too, and I could understand why.

I just couldn't bear it. I couldn't bear to see that expression. My whole body was shaking from exhaustion and overflowing sadness and anger. I felt helpless, even though I was at the "better" end of the blade. My grip and stance slackened as more tears came.

"Why!?" I was practically at the edge of bawling again, limbs shaking as if I had a fever, "Why didn't you come..!?"

A heavy sigh got past his teeth; He wasn't very good with words, exception being jokes. I let him slowly and carefully take the blade from my hand and lower it onto my bag. I wanted to protest, I wanted to FIGHT him, but all that slowly faded away.

"i… i believe this is yours.." he said in a small voice, taking out the famous red scarf and holding it out. He seemed rather uncomfortable doing something as simple as speaking, and it was partially because I flipped out at him. I felt so dirty, so spoiled, so wrong. If only I hadn't stopped him, if only I'd let him kill me and just gave up, this wouldn't be happening. They would have their SOUL, they could escape. They could be happy. My knees buckled and though with some effort, he caught me before I hit the ground.

I gripped the back of his jacket.

"I'm so sorry…" I said in a voice so small I barely heard it myself, "I shouldn't have… I shouldn't have.. I-I almost killed-"

"Shush." he spoke in a soft tone I didn't even know he was capable of, "I shouldn't have tried to just flat out murder you because of a suspicion, especially after you've been so merciful to the other monsters."

"… Why…?" I hiccupped, tears constricting my throat, "What is that thing… That parasite y-you spoke of? Why is it so dangerous that we both must be exterminated..?"

Another heavy sigh. That was clearly not an easy topic for him to talk about.

"Alright, I guess it's by the time I told you the full story.." He said, slowly sitting down, "y'see, kiddo, back when your mother was here she didn't go through the underground just once, but used the power you have to massive extents and literally RESET to the very beginning of her journey down here. she was curious. she once went, and killed everyone in the underground. heh, i foolishly thought i could stop her, just like i tried with you.. though, just as i was turning to dust, i.. i saw her restarting. she ended the genocide prematurely and restarted. there was someone else. there were times when she was a nicer person, but one curious thought ended up in her getting corrupt forever. corrupt by the.. whatever that thing is…"

"it urged her to kill Papyrus and that robot, Mettaton, even after the reset. I've always held it against her, because she could RESET at that point, LOAD, whatever, but didn't. She just went on and killed the king, along with dozens of monsters, taking Papyrus' life and scarf as well. I can sense that the presence that guided her to do that exists in you too. It's now in back of your conscience, but it'll get out of control if ya let it. i didn't wanna risk it. Please, kid, ya gotta understand..?"

I nodded rather grimly, looking down to the scarf in my hands; it was only when I glanced up that I saw his eye glowing faintly green. I recognized that magic from a few other monsters; he was trying to heal my injuries, though a monster with magic that is barely enough to keep him alive couldn't do much else than half-heal the wounds and exhaust himself. Still, I was grateful.

".. Sans?" I spoke up again, wiping my eyes, "I.. I have to go face off Undyne soon, and if I convince her that I want to help break the barrier and, hopefully don't die while doing so, will you come to the surface with me?"

"Heh, sure kiddo."

I gave him a small smile, and he gave one in return. At that moment everything was fine. Everything was okay. I felt okay for the first time since I got to the capital.

But then…

"Oh how _sweet_." a far too familiar, menacing voice spoke from behind us; Both of our heads suddenly darted towards the source

"Thought you could get away from me?" The flower bobbed on his stem with a disturbingly cheerful grin plastered over his face.

In a flash a thorny vine sprouted from ground, impaling Sans right through the center of his ribcage. I… I don't know if monsters are.. supposed to bleed.. And I'm not sure I want to know… I froze and just watched helplessly at Sans' startled expression as his single health point, the thin thread his life was hanging on, broke. There was almost enough ill intent in that single blow to kill a normal, maybe even a bit stronger one, let alone a weak one like Sans.

Shattered bone of his ribs and vertebrae rained down; Sans' body stiffened for a few long moments as the red… fluid trickled down, soon making its way down his now bare feet and onto the ground. Then, his whole body fell limp. Just as Flowey tore out his vine his body started to disappear, like it was fading away. By the time he fell to the ground there was no Sans left; just a beat up old jacket, shorts, turtleneck and a single slipper, his dust falling across the room, just like snow back in Snowdin.

"S…Sans..?" Was all I managed before I screamed bloody murder.

And that's when it happened.

The corridor, Flowey, everything just seemed to stutter through time, even my own screaming. The image before my eyes warped, like pixels glitching out on our old computer. And before I knew it I was back in Sans' hold again, face stained with fresh tears.

I had forced a RESET.

* * *

"kid?" Sans was confused at the sudden squeeze I gave him, "kid, what's-"

I didn't hear more. It didn't matter. I just pressed my ear against his ribcage, and felt his SOUL's beat, much calmer than the one of my own heart.

" _Thank God_."

"Kiddo?" Sans sounded seriously upset, "You look as if you've just seen a ghost."

"Sans we have to go." I said, quickly getting onto my feet and picking up my bag

"What's the hurr-"

"We have to go, now!"

Boy, I bet I sounded pretty panicked. But it was all nothing compared to what came when I heard the cold, steel laugh of Flowey.

A thorny vine flew in Sans' direction again, though this time I knew what was coming and pushed him away.

Good news? I managed to get him out of harm's way.

Bad news? I leaned all my weight onto forcing him outta the way that I took a bad hit through the side of my abdomen. And the next thing I know I'm not just struck by it, I'm impaled right through like a shish-kebab.

It hurt. God, how it hurt. My vision was getting hazy quickly, but not quickly enough not to notice the red covering vine that appeared on the other side, a thorn poking directly at my rib. My gaze, though had been aimed directly at Sans; That expression… Shock, fear, eye sockets opened wide and the lights that were shining brightly in them just a minute ago lowered to measly pinpricks. I couldn't really tell if he was just startled at what just happened, or if the last Reset had started getting back to him. Or both. But if it was the latter, boy, was it awful timing or what?

There was dead silence for about a moment, until I felt the vine tearing out. It was even worse than being impaled, believe it or not. I heard Sans' yelling and footsteps; He managed to catch me, or at least stop my head and shoulders from hitting the floor anyways. Everything was going hazy though, unfortunately enough, I could still clearly feel the sickly warm red fluid gushing from my abdomen. I couldn't quite make out anything else; I felt Sans' tight hold on me and his, by then blurry face completely taken over by panic and concern. I couldn't quite make out what he was saying, something in the context of "oh god" and "why?" and "you're going to be fine." and "stay with me.". I could tell he was looking for a way to stop the bleeding. I felt bad for dragging him into something like that _again_.

The last thing I remember were Flowey's screeching laughter and the feeling of warm tears dripping onto my face.

Again, there was no darkness. The world just gave a stutter and the next thing I know was being back in Sans' hold, only this time it wasn't me trying to make sure it's really him, but the other way around. He seemed panicked, and I didn't have to be a genius to know why.

The last reset he didn't even seem to get what happened; his death was so quick then that he most likely didn't even process what was happening until it was too late and the last RESET happened. Again, probably at the worst possible moment.

And judging from the looks of him, the reset hadn't come as soon as it looked to me.

"Impressive!" Flowey voiced excitedly, "Two immediate resets in a row! Wonder how many can there be before you finally reach your limit..?~"

Again, a vine flew for us. I could feel DETERMINATION suddenly sparking up. Before I knew it I'd reached for my switchblade, got to my feet and cut clean through the vine.

Excited, Screeching laughter once again filled the corridor as more vines sprouted from everywhere. I didn't waste any time.

"Go get Undyne!" I yelled to Sans. He seemed reluctant to go, but did so anyway.

I managed to get rid of a few vines, but I quickly lost my footing and ended up getting trashed around the castle corridor like a ragdoll. Sounds of bones, cracking and shattering one after another, all of them mine. It seemed familiar for some reason, but I didn't have time to figure out why.

I wouldn't hold out for long enough.

He had dropped me after a while, and without much hesitation stabbed me through my solar plexus with a thorn-riddled vine.

I needed to change my strategy.

Again a stutter and a hop in time.

Back to the point when Sans had just left.

DETERMINATION growing stronger.

Getting killed.

A stutter in time.

Back to the start of the fight.

DETERMINATION growing stronger and stronger.

Murder.

A stutter.

Starting the fight anew.

DETERMINATION overflowing

GAME OVER

RESET

FIGHT

DETERMINATION slowly but steadily

Growing out of control

* * *

 **A/N: Wow a long one!**

 **This REALLY didn't go as planned.**

 **Everything slowly started to change when I threw in Flowey and got wrecked when I added Sans. Whoops.**

 **Anyways, it's hella late so I'll proof read this in the morning and post it. Thank you all, again, for being so patient with me!**

 **And remember..**

 _ **Reviews = Happy Admin = Quicker And More Quality Updates!**_

 **Good Night, my wonderful peeps!**


	7. The Viole(n)t And Red Future

**A/N:** _ **CHAPTER WARNINGS: GRAPHIC DEPICTIONS OF VIOLENCE AND MUTILATION, CHARACTER DEATH, EMOTIONAL DISTRESS, BODY HORROR**_

 **Also South Park and other reference(s), see if you can find all of them.**

 **I can't believe how much of positive feedback this fanfic has been getting, I'm so happy ;v;**

 **When I see a positive review when I open up my Gmail it literally makes my day, and it's mostly the reason why this one didn't go on hiatus again. So, thank you all so very much! I almost feel bad for writing this chapter the way I did. Almost ;**

 **Speaking of it, let's roll!**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 7:**_

 _ **Viole(n)t And Red Future**_

There was, uh, already something wrong with me after the first, I dunno, 6 RESETs. My mind kept trailing off, I started to feel agitated more and more often, I had weird thoughts, Parts of my body felt really itchy at times, and so on. So you can imagine how it went from the fight with Flowey.

My DETERMINATION was getting out of hand. I felt so motivated, but at the same time annoyed. I didn't even have a plan; just to survive for long enough for Sans to come back. Though, multiple times, it occurred to me that it would be easier to just through the damned weed. Nobody would miss it, and it's been nothing but trouble. Just a nasty, sadistic flower.

Once I did it. I went through with it. I snapped out all of the little thing's health points. I felt bad.

And Let me tell you a thing. If you're not a person that finds enjoyment in huge amounts of adrenalin, LOVE is not the thing for you. Love as normal love is okay, but the L-O-V-E is awful. It felt like my stomach was twisting around itself. I forced another RESET.

So it went on. I kept fighting. I kept RESETTING. Each time, I got slightly closer. One time I even heard approaching footsteps, but they weren't quick enough. The fighting was quicker with the newly learnt "Quick Reset", but not quick enough.

And unlike other enemies, Flowey wasn't so easy to defeat. His bullet patterns changed with each RESET, there was no pace to follow. Compared to Flowey, others were about as easy to defeat as sacks of Potatoes.

And the worst part is, Flowey wasn't getting tired. He wasn't getting bored. And unlike other monsters, he wouldn't let me attack. He wouldn't let me talk. He wouldn't let me heal. He wouldn't let me run. He kept his turn going, and going, and going. He trashed me around the walls until they were beaten in, he shot pellets and thorns at me, he stabbed me through and strangled me with his vines, he'd crush and crack my bones in various ways. It was sheer torture.

When I was struck down by the umpteenth time, my SOUL shattering right in front of my own eyes- well, that's the thing.

It _should_ have shattered.

No, instead, it cracked, it shook violently, but stayed together. I felt the urge to get up, to FIGHT, to win.

I somehow managed to get up onto my badly bruised legs and equipped my switchblade. Flowey looked more than pleased. He looked excited. He almost looked ecstatic. Suddenly, my legs didn't hurt anymore. I didn't feel sorry for killing him before anymore. I didn't feel anything but pure rage and DETERMINATION washing over my whole body.

I could see my SOUL, still outside my body, glimmering violet, pulsing light shattering into weird shades alongside the diagonal crack. I could see the countless versions of me, countless broken phantom visions of bodies scattered all across the room. Some of them looked better than the others. One of them still had screaming Sans over it, by several others there were Undyne and Sans, two were left alive; One that was shaking, looking at a dusted blue coat. Other was shaking in a corner with her switchblade thrown across the room, Undyne and Sans by her side, and a cut down weed at the other end of the hallway.

Lingering images of all the past RESETS I've made there, suddenly coming back to haunt me. I should've realized something was wrong. But no, now I'm stuck here, playing Captain Hindsight with you.

I can't remember much more clearly, I wasn't thinking straight. What I _can_ remember though is for every should-have-been fatal hit I saw and felt my own SOUL slowly wash over red. Like it was bleeding from the cracks. Looking back on that, thaaaaaaat should've been the clue number 2. It was refusing to die. It was as sick of RESETS as I was because after all, it _was_ the culmination of my very being.

Though, after it received one last, critical hit it split apart and shattered before my own eyes. Before I knew it I was back in the darkness.

* * *

I know what you might be thinking: "Oh, you just RESET then, right?", or "I thought there was no 'darkness' since you learned the Instant RESET, no?"

No, and very unfortunately and obviously, no. I was back in that god-forsaken limbo. I had the DETERMINATION, I just had to reach out, right?

Riiiight?

Well, apparently not.

Back when I still had to go through that hell, I got curious what would happen if I waited. I was tired of the RESETS, one could say I just wanted to let go and die, wait for the death that would never come. To just die and wait for dad to come along. Though, the longer I waited, I began to see some light. Not the bright shining light at the end of the tunnel, but little glimmers of reoccurring light all around me.

I waited some more. Before long I realized that that light were strings. Silver, shining strings, going as far as eye could see in that pit. Now that I look back on it, it was almost like some kind of a forest. After a short while I reached out for one of them, and it hummed on touch. I slid my finger down, it produced a short melody. I tugged on it, it screeched and everything flashed white. I was back at the last "SAVE Point".

This time, I waited. I waited, and waited, and waited. Nothing was happening. No lights were appearing, no tears in timelines to escape to. I felt hopeless. I leaned back and fell into the hold of the darkness.

Though, just then, I saw a thin, white string right behind me. I pushed myself up and looked at it. There was only one left. Had I really died so many times already? Heh, suddenly that "you only live once" motto sounds stupid, eh?

I touched it gently, it hummed as weakly as it shone. I fiddled around with it a bit, I dragged my fingertips across it for as long as I could, listening to the gentle melody of life. That was my last way out, last opportunity. I wanted to cherish it.

Though, after a while, I decided I had no time to mess around any further, and lightly tugged on it. Instead of a screech, it washed over violet, then red, breaking off and shattering into fine powder in my hands. It had been too weak. Its fragile existence wasn't enough to give me one last chance. I felt terrified. I felt truly hopeless. I would remain dead.

My hands shook, wide eyes staring into the nothingness once filled with beautiful bits and pieces of timelines I could crawl into. The red dust fell from my hands slowly, seeping in between my fingers.

Suddenly, I heard a faint, sly voice from behind me.

"Oh wow… I've never seen anyone use up so many timelines…"

My nerves spiked, even though it was a rather gentle tone. Kinda familiar too. I turned to the source, only to find a kid about my age or older. They were wearing a green and yellow shirt with a heart locket around their neck. They wore brown long pants, and I suppose some kind of shoes…? I can't really tell, about anything past ankles blended into the darkness in that place. They had neatly cut short brown hair, russet eyes, rosy cheeks and a small, er… I guess "sympathetic" would be the way to describe that smile. I couldn't really tell if they were a boy or a girl, the voice wasn't really helping. Maybe they were a tomboyish girl…? A boy…? I still can't tell.

I managed something I thought would sound like "who are you?", but I could tell it sounded nothing like that. They just smiled a bit wider.

"I'm no one. I'm just like you." They continued in a voice dripping with sweetness and honesty, "I'm just another SOUL who ran out of timelines to escape to. I'm stuck here, just as you are now.."

So many questions came to my mind; Who were they? How come I've never seen them before? Why didn't they try to escape into one of my timelines? How long were they there?

As if to respond to them, they carried on, not waiting for me to blurt out another nonsensical stutter:

"I've been here for what you could say was decades; time passes very slowly here, as you can tell." they then sighed, "I've seen you before, you poor thing. You've been hurt so many times, mostly by betrayal from others. I've seen you RESETTING, I believed you could make it, so I even cheered you on as you gripped onto those shreds of your own life and strung them into different timelines."

Then it became clear why the voice was so familiar; they've been watching me struggle pathetically through the underground all this time. But one question remained.

"… I'm Chara." They said, putting a hand out to me, "The friend that comes when you call their name."

I carefully put my hand in theirs and they pulled me up.

"I have to say, your life has a nice tune to it. The air around it hums with strength and DETERMINATION. … I used to have it too, but my life was cut short, and so was my brother's."

"What happened..?" my voice was probably flowing with sympathy.

But they just shook their head and put my hands into theirs, and being slightly taller than me looked down into my eyes.

"They hurt me. They hurt my dear brother, all the monsters. The humans I once called my own kind reaped the lives of so many others, fearing such fragile and kind creatures. They were mad. They took my life and my family. They took our freedom and everything we held dear, and monsters now ACT according to that, but I know a way we can fix that. How we can set them all free."

Without missing a beat, I nodded to let them know I'm listening.

"You see, I've been dead for so long, I'm in great pain. But I learned something during that time, the ability of two humans sharing a body."

"B-but, isn't it a rule that only a monster and a human SOUL can fuse, not monster with monster and human with human..?"

"It's a special exception. I can lead you, I can help you free all of them if you just let me, please." They said in the most honest and heartfelt voice I've ever heard. My heart sunk; there was something wrong, but I misunderstood what it was. Another spoiler: HUGE mistake.

I gulped down the biting feeling in my throat and nodded again. Their smile got even wider, to the point that it was getting slightly less natural and half a step more to alarming.

"Excellent." they gripped my hands tighter, and their heart locket started to faintly glow.

The smile kept getting wider, the grip on my hands tighter, the glow of the locket stronger and pressure building up in my chest heavier.

"Ch-Chara," I started panicking pretty fast, but I'd bet you too would if a strange dead kid was crushing your hands and you had a real hard time breathing, "You're really starting to scare me, l-let go of my hands please..?"

I started looking around and it didn't help. No, in fact it made me more aware of the situation and that made things even worse.

I could see Chara's hands shaking slightly from the pressure they put onto my hands. And speaking of those, there was no way they could help. My fingers were blue and numb, and I could swear I heard cracking. It hurt, it hurt so much and they were just smiling widely, so much that it should be anatomically impossible to do so without stretching their face and tearing their lips. And what a surprise, that's exactly what it did. The Russet brown eyes became straight up red and bloodshot, their face pale leaving only their rosy cheeks their original color.

I looked around some more, tugging to get my hands out of the steel grip, but they weren't letting go, and examining my surroundings only, again, made me panic more. I finally realized what was causing the chest pressure.

I saw my SOUL, the little glimmering Violet heart, slowly separating from my body. This was not natural. Nothing about it was. When it was fully out, it felt like I've been dragged into and through a taxing fight, and boy its looks matched the feeling. It was littered with countless cracks on almost every single millimeter, breaking the violet light into various shades and colors. It would've been beautiful if it wasn't A) extremely painful, B) Extremely dangerous and C) Completely nuts.

But no, it didn't stop there. It continued going until it met with the locket.

"You know…" They spoke, they voice distorted like it was two people speaking, "Your life has a nice tune to it. The air around it hums with strength and DETERMINATION.. It's the same as theirs…"

"I've…"

 _"_ _ **Al**_ _w_ _ **a**_ _ys_ _ **w**_ _an_ _ **t**_ _e_ _ **d**_ _t_ _ **o**_ _h_ _ **ave**_ _ **IT**_ _."_

Their face was dripping, like they were just a painting. The black from their eyelashes slid and dyed their sclera in a terrifying fashion. Next thing it was just plain sliding over their now inhumanly stretched, toothless mouth. Don't ask me how it became like that, I was too busy panicking over the other details to notice. My point is, their face was melting. Like when Monsters absorb too much DETERMINATION. And the feeling they radiated, that sensation in the air.. The one I felt in the last few RESETs. The same one I felt when killing Flowey. It wasn't just the same as it, it _was_ the same.

The moment the locket and my SOUL connected they changed color. It was like ink shot through each one, violet through the little red necklace on Chara's chest and red through the cracked culmination of my very being.

It felt like I was shot through, even though there were no visible wounds on my body. I guess that would make sense, counting how violently it reacted on touch. But no, they didn't give me even a second of rest. Quite the opposite, as I didn't even have enough time to double over before they grabbed me by my shirt's collar and lifter me up, taking my own switchblade and flipping it open, seemingly out of nowhere. I don't know if this makes sense to you, I know that to me it did not. Still doesn't. But this is The Void, isn't it? Nothing makes sense here. The existence of it makes no sense itself.

The next thing I knew, they were staring up at me, their red pupils still persisting the ink-like liquid. I must have looked pretty pathetic and scared, because that's how I felt. Even more so, they seemed to be enjoying it and taking it in. Just me, trashing in panic to no avail, in fear for my petty life.

"Don't worry. I will keep the promise." They chuckled in their polyphonic tone, "They will be 'free', mankind will _suffer_ , I will have a new body."

" _And I could have never done it without you._ "

All I remember were them swinging my own blade across my face, everything going red, then white, accompanied by a distorted screech of a lifeline opening a new timeline.

Now, before you judge me and look for the holes in the story, let me remind you that by the time I got into The Void I felt angry and betrayed, even after Sans apologized, and Chara was the first human I've seen in days, and they were so understanding. I know now that it was a dumb decision to trust them, but back then it wasn't so obvious.

So…

 ***FIGHT**

You see, Mister… I stalled my RESET too much, and now they've made their return…

 ***Your LOVE increased**

I'm sorry I freaked out when I saw you… It was all new to me back then.

 **LV 5**

…..

I guess you're right.

No matter how much I dwell on it now… I can't change the past… Not anymore.

Not…

Anymore…

* * *

 **999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999**

 **A/N: THE END?**

 **HHHHHNNNNNGH I WAS HAPPY WITH THIS CHAPTER BUT I'M NOT**

 **I'M NOT OKAY WITH THIS I AM** **NOT** **OKAY WITH THIS**

 **( I'M STILL GLAD I MADE THAT PUN IN THE TITLE THO I WAITED SINCE THE START TO DO IT )**

 **SO IS THIS THE END?**

 **WILL THIS BE THE FIRST EVER STORY THAT I WRAPPED UP?**

 **WILL IT HAVE A SAD OR A HAPPY ENDING?**

 **FIND OUT IN THE NEXT CHAPTER IF IT EVER HAPPENS?**

 **BYE?**


	8. The End?

**"… You're still here?**

…

… **What, you want more?**

 **You're still hoping for a better ending?**

 **Heh, the fact that I'm here telling you all this means there is no happy ending. I done f'd up as much as possible. Chara took over my body and are hacking and slashing their way through the whole underground, setting the monsters 'free' with Undyne and Sans after them, and I'm stuck here, in the position they were this whole time, watching all the monsters I befriended and SPARED get killed, all my hard work going to waste.**

 **You know what will happen? Ultimately, they will kill everyone and escape the Underground, then proceed to do the same with all the humans, along with my mother and father I so desperately wanted to see at least once more, while all I can do is watch them and slowly perish myself.**

 **That's it. Ending, Fin, Game Over.**

… **.**

 **You won't go away, will you?**

 **Hhh, fine, you know what?**

 **I'll humor you and show you what happened next, but do not expect some great ending.**

 **Because stories like this one**

 **Never have a happy ending."**

 **PSYCHE BISHESSSSS**

 **I'M BACK BABY**

 **BAAAAAACKKKKKKKK**

 **BACK TO F WITH YOUR FEELINGS EVEN MORE**

 **I'M NOT EVEN SURE HOW TO START THIS ONE HOLY CRAP WE WENT TO FAR OFF THE RAILS WITH THIS ONE**

 **BUT I HAVE A NEW ENDING ALREADY PLANNED**

 **BUT AS I ALREADY MAY HAVE SAID I'M TERRIBLE AT STARTING THINGS**

 **SO YEAH THIS MIGHT TAKE A WHILE.**

 **ALSO SWITCHING TO THIRD PERSON**

* * *

 _ **Chapter 8:**_

 _ **The End?**_

Step, step

Void

Step, step

More blackness

Step, step, step

Shadows growing closer

But there are no shadows

Step, step, step

Photon readings are negative

Without light, there is no dark

Then why is it blackness and bleak all around?

Step, step, step, step

A cry for help

The lonely girl yells

"Somebody? Anybody?"

 _But nobody came_

Step, step, step, step

What is she walking on? Nobody knows.

Bare feet echo against the invisible floor over and over

Step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step

Endlessly, endlessly

Again and again

She grabs onto thin air. Is it even air? Nothing meets her pale hand.

Step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step, step

The girl collapses

How far does it go?

Desperate and alone, Tired and sad, Betrayed and hurt, she falls to the ground.

Is it even ground?

Her echoing sobs are only broken by sounds accompanying the image somehow all around her, the look through eyes of a murder using her body

"Stop it" she cries over and over again.

She calls out a name,

"Sans"

Nothing happens.

She calls out again, "Toriel"

"Blooky"

She's gripping onto every last straw,

"Flowey"

But it dissipates just as quickly

"Papyrus!"

Vision clouded by tears, gradually she falls into a trance alike sleep.

* * *

A gentle shake on her shoulder broke her out of the nasty illusion of rest. Is it help? Was this all a dream?

She opened her eyes, first thing she sees being a little red heart, floating just outside of the white dress. When she reached that fact alone, she could almost feel it sink straight through the void's "floor".

Though, the what, or who, still thought she was "asleep", and kept lightly nudging her shoulder. With a strained movement she looked up to the "person" that was urging her to wake up.

It was a tall, hunched silhouette of… I think you could say a skeleton? He wore a white turtleneck and a black coat which mended with the darkness completely; he looked like a floating head with a bit of shoulders exposed and two hole-y hands floating by his side. Speaking of the head, it wasn't like a regular skeleton's; it was almost completely smooth, with only a nasal hole, a slightly open hole, that I suppose you could call a mouth, with small marks above it like smoothed out teeth, And two eye sockets, both with cracks, or ink, going down the left one and up on the right one. The sockets were pitch black, only the left one with a pinprick of light in it, expressing concern.

The girl immideately jumped back a few feet

"AAAH!"

 **"AAAH!"** The person replied in equally startled, but distorted voice.

"AAAH!"

 **"AAAH!"**

"AAAH!"

 **"AAAH!"**

The cracks started to look more and more like ink streams, the skull and even clothes and hands, now floating in a defensive manner, started to look a bit liquid-y. This only made the screaming from the girl's side worse, and by extension the person's, which apparently caused more melting. It was almost comical to watch.

Though, after a few minutes passing like that, the girl realized what the problem was and tried calming the terrified "skeleton" down.

"Hey, hey- " she spoke in a soft voice, "S-sorry, I didn't mean to startle you.."

She took one of his melting hands into hers. The feel to it made her shiver in memory of the amalgamated monsters in Underground's underground.

Though, it didn't seem to be in vain, as the Creature seemed to calm down.

Then it occurred to her, looking at the tall, well-meaning person;

 _Somebody came._

* * *

"What's your name, mister?"

An incoherent mumble was heard

"You don't remember?"

The creature nodded

"Do you remember any of the life before you came here?"

The creature shook their head.

"Do you remember how you got here?"

The creature repeated the gesture.

"I see.." she sighed and looked back to the big "FIGHT" Button in the darkness, soon replaced by a red slash mark.

 **"…,,,.,.,?"**

"Hm?"

 **"…,,,.,.,?"**

"What's my name?"

A nod in response.

"Heh, I went without a name for so long that I can barely even remember it. Mom just called me sweetie, and in underground everyone either called me 'kid' or 'dude' or 'human' or 'pest' or 'idiot'. It's kinda a shame."

 **"…..,.,..,,,,.?"**

"I came here…" she said, looking down to her SOUL, washed over with the color of DETERMINATION, even though she felt none, "By a series of bad decisions, bad judgments and rushed responses. This is the worst ending I could've got."

"And now…" she said, looking down to her feet, covered by the white dress that by the ends gradually blended into the nothingness below, "I'm stuck here to perish."

"But at least I won't be alone." She smiled half heartedly and looked up to the skeleton, who bent over and offered a "hug", which was basically just carefully leaning onto her, seeing as he had no "arms", just hands. She was grateful for that.

"… Hey, mister."

 **"?"**

"Everyone seems to be vulnerable and exposed here. Like, having SOULs right outside of their respected places."

The mystery person nodded in response.

"… Where is yours then?"

The skeleton let go of her, momentarily slouching its body in a way similar to a sigh. It backed off about half a step and put its holey hands over a place where its chest should be, closing its eye sockets in a peaceful manner.

A faint green light shone through the holes in its hands, gradually forming a small, upside down heart. Its SOUL.

The girl knew that Monster SOULs don't usually have a color, but in this place even the faintest colored SOULs like her own started to take on the brightest of colors. In this particular monster's case, it was a soothing green. Like healing magic, or like the one that keeps you from escaping a battle, or moving at all. Hah. What delightful irony.

Though, the heart had an inconsistent shape; always warping a bit, like it's falling apart and putting itself back together. An anomaly.

 **"…,,,,,."**

".. Excuse me?"

 **"…,,,,,."**

"You want me to take your SOUL? But why?"

The creature shook its head. It looked tired out, exhausted, and much less innocent and reassuring than before. It was like watching it age rapidly, all the way to the point where it looked like a skeleton equivalent of an old man; the lines on his face became more like cracks, the area around his eye sockets looked sore and sad, the whole surface of the bone looked like it had tiny scrapes on it, as dry as.. well, bone. In the Void your feelings are exposed as much as your own SOUL is, and this creature felt tired.

So very tired.

It knew it didn't have much time left. It wanted her to use the remainder of its power to SAVE what's left.

Those emotions that rung through the void like echoes, radiated from the SOUL itself.

Hesitantly, she touched the delicate heart. The creature smiled gratefully.

 **"Thank you."**

* * *

"Another one bites the dust."

"And another one bites the dust!" A voice chimed through the underground. Many monsters, drawn by the familiarity of it met the very same fate. Sweet as honey, dripping in tar, the voice of a well known, well-meaning human called the little monsters in, only for them to realize far too late the phantom undertone of a far more menacing presence.

The human walked the underground, taking lives and leaving behind dust as two heroes chased after it. An odd duo, both of which lost loved ones to it before; The heroine, who lost an enthusiastic friend and another very insecure one to it before now lost an aspiring, armless and harmless Understudy and a neighbor. The hero who long ago lost a brother now lost his good friend whom he never got to pay his tab to.

Both were devastated by their losses, but pushed ahead to stop a has-been friend and a would've-been opponent.

"You've got to be kidding me.." The skeleton said without breath, "They're already past the town?!"

"It took us too long to get past the Hotland" The empress huffed, steps slowing down for only a moment before her yellow sclera sparked up and boots crunched through the snow quicker

"Hey!" The skeleton started for a moment, exhausted and tempted to just lie down in the snow and do what humans expected of skeletons to do; lay motionless until he's frozen over. Though, as soon as he remembered who would be the last victim he forced himself to sprint after the armored fish lady. His bones creaked with effort.

Meanwhile, the human walked through the deathly silent forest, pocket knife set firm in one hand, bag slung over the shoulder, brown eyes giving off an unsettling russet aura.

"Mooooooom!" They chirped at the stone doors bearing the sign of the Underground, almost unable to hide their twisted excitement, "I'm hoooooome!"

When their estimated time passed they pressed an ear to the doors, a hint of annoyance creeping into their voice. They waited over 100 years to meet her face to face, they were not too eager to wait any longer.

"Mooooooom, it's cold out here.. Don't you want to let your precious c-h-i-l-d innnn?"

No response again. So the skeleton warned her.

"I doubt you want me to go inside on my own, do you~?" They started looking around. Where was that switch Asriel and they used back when they snuck in to explore?

A light rustle made them stop in their tracks. They bared their knife and turned around.

"Who's there?"

They scanned the trees, but found nothing. The sound repeated as soon as they tried to turn around.

 _"I don't have time for this,"_ They thought bitterly, _"The nuisance of a skeleton and that oversized fish will be here any moment now"_

The sound repeated again and again, behind them, from the trees, off the path, from afar, from almost by their ear, everywhere.

Massively confused and even a bit scared, the human started pulling on a switch behind the old camera in the bush. Frozen over. Great.

Incoherent words were heard from behind them, like an Echo.

 **"Sss…op…"**

 **"Sss…top"**

A black mass rose from the shadow of the trees, it's chest shining in an union of green and purple. The creature warped shape, in the end settling for one of a little girl in a white dress with long brown hair. She was very thin, as if she was just skin and bone, the said mix taking on a nauseatingly pale, chalky color. The right side of her face was littered with cracks that shone a golden shade. Her pupil-less, pitch black eyes seemed to stare into the human for a moment. Her lips quivered into a mirthless smile as distorted words seemed to come out of them.

 **"FoUnD YoU"**

* * *

 **A/N: HOLY CARP THIS TOOK WAY LONGER TO WRITE THAN IT SHOULD HAVE.**

 **But how I said up there, haha, psyche! We've still got about one or two chapters to go.**

 **I'll edit this when I do the drawing of the "Echo", how I call the fusion.**

 **Anyways, not much was said in this chapter, I agree, but I hope the next few chapters clear it all up. See you all next time!**

 **And remember!**

 _ **Reviews = Happy Admin = Faster and Better Quality Updates!**_

 _ **EDIT:**_ **The drawing of "Echo" is done, back on the Page I mentioned up there (because Fanfiction won't let me post links), Stupidusernamepolicy on DeviantART**


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